MAGAZINE  FOR  TEACHERS. 


STS 

j  W*  %-*"  KJ*  KJ> 


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7T 


October,  1900. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 
IN  GEOGRAPHY 


COMPILED  BY 
S.  Y.  GILLAN, 

Editor  Western  Teacher ,  Milwaukee^  Wis. 


PUBLISHED  BY  S.  Y.  GILLAN  &  CO., 
MILWAUKEE. 


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No.  1.  Tracing  and  Sketching  Lessons  in  Geography,  by  S.  Y.  Cillan, 
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GILLAN’S  QUARTERLY 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


COMPILED  BY 

S.  Y.  GILLAN 


MILWAUKEE 

S.  Y.  GILLAN  &  COMPANY 


1900 


HOUTKAMP  A  CANNON, 
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MILWAUKEE. 


PREFACE 


Every  up-to-date  teacher  of  geography  appreciates 
good  supplementary  matter  in  this  branch.  On  the  part 
of  the  pupil  interest  in  a  text-book  is  short-lived  unless 
the  teacher  supplies  other  matter  related  to  the  topics 
assigned  in  the  lessons.  This  little  volume  is  compiled 
with  a  view  to  the  teacher’s  need  of  a  storehouse  from 
which  to  get  such  material.  Some  of  the  articles  are 
purposely  selected  for  entertainment,  or  to  excite  inter¬ 
est  and  curiosity,  rather  than  for  study  or  mastery  of 
facts.  The  discerning  teacher  knows  “which  is  which” 
without  having  them  labeled. 

A  few  articles  are  included  which  relate  to  methods  of 
teaching  geography.  Most  of  what  appears  in  these 
pages  was  originally  published  in  The  Western  Teacher. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS  IN  GEOGRAPHY. 


Some  Facts  about  Greater  New  York, 

Since  1897  Greater  New  York,  including  the  for¬ 
mer  cities  of  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Long  Island  City, 
and  a  score  of  towns  and  villages  adjacent  has  been  one 
city.  It  has  a  population  of  about  three  and  a  half  mil¬ 
lions  on  an  area  of  360  square  miles. 

This  land  and  The  buildings  on  it  are  valued  at 
$4,500,000,000.  It  is  impossible  to  comprehend  this 
vast  sum,  but  we  will  understand  better  that  the  land  is 
worth  on  an  average  50  cents  a  square  foot.  There 
are  sections  on  Broadway  and  Wall  street  that  could 
not  be  bought  for  a  thousand  times  that  sum.  The 
property  value  of  this  modern  city  would  buy  one-third 
of  all  the  farms  in  the  United  States.  This  great  city 
is  less  than  three  hundred  years  old,  and  during  the 
first  two  hundred  years  it  did  not  attain  a  growth  equal 
to  the  increase  of  some  periods  of  six  months  during 
the  past  fifty  years.  London  and  Paris  were  cities  a 
thousand  years  before  ever  a  white  man  set  foot  on 
Manhattan  Island.  What  has  made  this  immense  city 
spring  up  in  so  short  a  time  in  a  new  country  ?  The 
New  York  harbor,  the  Erie  canal,  and  the  enterprise 
of  the  American  people. 


6  SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 

The  whole  of  Greater  New  York  is  grouped  about 
New  York  harbor,  one  of  the  amplest,  safest  and  most 
picturesque  harbors  on  the  globe.  The  peculiar  action 
of  the  tide  on  this  harbor  owing  to  its  position  wTith 
reference  to  Long  Island  Sound  and  Hell  Gate  is  of 
great  advantage.*  New  York  City  proper  alone  has 
a  water  frontage  of  sixty  miles,  while  the  shores  of  the 
other  islands  and  much  of  the  main  land  is  lined  with 
wharves.  Brooklyn  has  a  great  array  of  dry  docks. 
This  harbor  looks  like  a  forest  of  masts. 

During  the  Revolution  Boston  was  a  greater  city 
than  New  York,  and  might  have  remained  so  if  the 
Erie  canal  had  not  been  built.  This  gave  New  York 
the  advantage  of  a  large  internal  commerce  besides  the 
foreign  trade,  and  was  therefore  a  great  impetus  to  New 
York  City.  It  was  built  in  1826,  before  the  day  of 
railroads,  and  opened  communication  with  all  western 
New  York  state.  When  the  western  states  were  settled 
they  found  they  had  an  open  waterway  from  Chicago 
to  New  York  City. 

New  York  now  receives  two-thirds  of  the  imported 
goods  brought  to  the  United  States,  and  sends  out  two- 
fifths  of  the  exports.  Other  cities  have  commodious 
harbors,  or  fine  waterways,  or  are  situated  in  rich  coun¬ 
tries,  but  no  other  city  combines  all  these  advantages  to 
such  a  degree  as  Greater  New  York,  the  greatest  city 
of  the  western  hemisphere. 


♦See  Gillan’s  Tracing  and  Sketching  Lessons  in  Geography,  page  65. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


7 


Camels  in  Arizona. 

Some  years  ago  an  attempt  was  made  to  introduce 
the  camel  into  the  arid  lands  of  the  southwest,  and  a 
large  herd  was  landed  at  Galveston  in  1858.  They 
came  from  Alexandria,  Egypt,  and  were  intended  to 
carry  the  mail  between  San  Antonio,  Tex.,  and  Los 
Angeles. 

“The  ship  of  the  desert”  was  never  a  success  in 
Arizona ;  the  broad,  cushioned  feet  that  were  made  for 
smooth  and  sandy  plains  were  too  tender  for  the  rocks 
and  cactus-strewn  trails  of  the  mountains.  The  ani¬ 
mals  became  lame,  showed  an  ungovernable,  temper, 
could  not  be  handled  by  any  but  experienced  men,  and 
were  finally  abandoned  as  a  nuisance.  Several  were 
turned  loose  to  wander  at  will,  and  from  time  to  time 
they  would  be  seen  seeking  shelter  in  the  canons  or 
feeding  on  the  plains.  In  1877  a  couple  of  French¬ 
men  rounded  up  between  twenty  and  thirty  and  at¬ 
tempted  to  use  them  for  packing  wood  in  and  ore  out 
of  the  mining  camps.  Several  were  taken  over  the 
Mexican  line  for  use  on  the  Sonora  deserts,  but  were 
never  successful.  Occasionally  prospectors  report  cam¬ 
els  in  the  mountains,  and  there  are  probably  several 
survivors  wandering  around.  Three  or  four  years  ago 
a  fine  specimen  was  shot  in  the  foot  hills  near  Harqua 
Hala,  and  the  skeleton  is  still  lying  near  the  trail. 
The  Indians  regard  the  ungainly  beasts  with  horror 
and  superstitious  awe,  and  a  wierd  gray  camel,  wearing 


8 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


a  weather-worn  saddle,  is  a  prominent  character  in 
frontier  mysteries. 


The  Earth  as  the  Home  of  Man. 

It  is  held  by  some  that  the  earth  was  made  and 
exists  primarily  to  furnish  a  home  for  the  human  race. 
Others  argue  that  man  exists  on  this  planet,  holding  on 
as  it  were  by  a  precarious  grasp  in  spite  of  untoward 
conditions,  and  that  on  the  whole  the  preponderance  of 
conditions  is  unfavorable  to  the  race.  However  this 
may  be  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  very  small  a  part 
of  the  planet  is  habitable  for  man. 

The  deepest  mines  extend  about  a  mile  below  sea- 
level;  the  highest  inhabited  spot,  the  custom  house  at 
Ancomasca,  Peru,  is  about  16,000  feet  above  the  sea. 
Hence  the  vertical  extent  of  man’s  occupancy  of  the 
earth  is  only  four  miles  $  and  as  this  includes  the  ex¬ 
tremes,  it  is  evident  that  a  layer  two  miles  thick  con¬ 
tains  the  dwelling  places  of  nearly  all  human  beings. 
On  an  eight-inch  globe  this  would  be  represented  by  a 
covering  of  paint  or  of  thin  tissue  paper.  In  horizontal 
extent  also,  man’s  home  is  narrowly  circumscribed. 
Subtract  the  water  surface,  the  vast  uninhabitable  polar 
regions,  the  desert  plains  and  the  inaccessible  mountain 
tracts  and  there  remains  only  about  one^tenth  of  the 
surface  which  is  available.  Probably  not  more  than  a 
half  of  this  tenth  is  of  a  quality  favorable  to  the  highest 
development  of  man. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


9 


Dissected  Maps. 

What  does  a  map  teach  ? 

The  usual  answer  is  that  it  teaches  facts  of  position, 
direction ,  form,  and  area ;  and,  in  the  main  this  is  right. 
The  facts  pertaining  to  drainage  slopes  and  comparative 
elevation  which  may  be  taught  from  ordinary  flat  maps 
are  acquired  not  directly  but  by  inference  from  the  four 
fundamental  concepts  above  noted. 

But  pupils  often  learn  to  distinguish  states  and 
countries  by  the  particular  color  in  which  they  are  rep¬ 
resented,  and  thus  they  miss  the  best  lessons  which  the 
map  should  impart. 

To  get  the  best  results  from  map  exercises  three 
things  are  necessary:  (1)  No  colors  should  be  used. 
(2)  The  map  should  be  easily  separable  into  the  states 
or  individual  countries  which  it  represents,  and  (3)  It 
should  be  possible  to  shift  separate  states  or  countries 
readily  to  different  positions. 

To  illustrate  :  Suppose  a  pupil  is  able  to  name  at 
sight  any  one  of  the  United  States  or  of  tho  countries 
of  Europe  when  pointed  out  at  random  on  the  map; 
this  is  no  evidence  that  he  has  learned  the  shape  of  each, 
or  that  he  has  an  adequate  or  even  approximate  notion 
of  the  comparative  size  of  the  states  or  countries.  To 
test  this,  take,  say  the  state  of  Washington,  from  a  dis¬ 
sected  map,  without  color  or  details  of  rivers,  cities,  etc., 
and  place  it  in  the  upper  right-hand  portion  of  a  space 


10 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


large  enough  to  hold  the  United  States,  on  the  same 
scale,  and  the  pupil  will  probably  not  be  able  to  name 
it.  This  shows  that  he  does  not  recognize  it  by  shape ; 
he  does  not  have  a  clear  concept  of  its  form.  He  names 
it  when  pointed  out  on  the  whole  map  because  he  asso¬ 
ciates  it  with  a  certain  position,  and  with  other  adjoin¬ 
ing  forms,  perhaps  also  with  a  certain  color. 

Again,  ask  which  is  the  larger,  Pennsylvania  or 
Kansas.  Most  pupils  will  answer  that  they  are  about 
equal  in  area.  This  error  originates  in  the  fact  that 
being  similar  in  form  and  never  seen  in  juxtaposition, 
but  with  many  other  states  intervening,  the  mind  car¬ 
ries  the  impression  of  similarity  of  shape  and  assumes 
similarity  of  size.  But  place  them  side  by  side,  and  the 
fact  that  Kansas  is  nearly  twice  as  large  as  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  comes  as  a  surprise  and  will  remain  as  a  perma¬ 
nent  mental  possession. 

Massachusetts  does  not  seem  a  very  small  state  as 
the  pupil  compares  it  in  thought  with  its  neighbors, 
New  Hampshire,  Vermont  and  Connecticut,  and  even 
the  great  disparity  between  Massachusetts  and  Califor¬ 
nia  is  not  adequately  realized  because  there  lies  between 
them  “a  sweep  continental.”  But  place  Massachusetts 
on  California  and  let  the  pupil  see  that  nineteen  states 
the  size  of  Massachusetts  could  be  cut  from  California, 
with  scraps  enough  left  to  more  than  equal  the  size  of 
Khode  Island,  and  he  has  a  lesson  in  comparative  area 
that  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  Or  put  one  end  of 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


11 


California  on  Boston,  swing  it  around  as  a  radius,  and 
note  the  position  of  Charleston,  Chicago,  Lake  Superior 
and  Hudson  Bay  with  reference  to  the  circumference 
described. 

But  how  can  class  exercises  be  devised  that  will  en¬ 
able  the  teacher  thus  to  bring  side  by  side  the  different 
states  ,and  countries,  or  to  superimpose  one  on  another  ? 

The  dissected  map  alone  will  not  accomplish  the 
end ;  for  class  drill  there  must  be  a  surface  to  which  the 
parts  of  the  map  will  adhere  in  a  vertical  position  and 
from  which  they  can  easily  be  detached. 

Having  the  movable  dissected  map  and  a  surface  to 
which  the  parts  will  adhere  in  a  vertical  position  and 
from  which  they  are  readily  detached,  the  following 
exercises  will  be  found  very  valuable  for  fixing  the  form 
and  relative  size  of  the  states  in  the  Union  and  their 
direction  from  one  another,  boundaries,  etc. 

To  fix  the  shapes  of  the  states,  drill  until  the  pupils 
readily  name  each  state  at  sight,  on  whatever  part  of 
the  board  it  may  be  placed.  Call  attention  to  peculiar¬ 
ities  in  form ;  for  example, 

Elephant’s  trunk — Eastern  projection  of  Massachu¬ 
setts. 

Jumping  frog — West  Virginia. 

Arm  chair — Louisiana. 

Big  Boxing-glove — Lower  peninsula  of  Michigan. 

Little  Boxing-glove — Rhode  Island. 

Prostrate  Camel — Virginia. 


12 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


Old  woman  stooping  over — the  group  Mississippi, 
Alabama,  Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  Wisconsin. 

“Pan-handle”  forms — West  Virginia,  Oklahoma, 
Idaho. 

Triangular  states — New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
New  York,  South  Carolina,  Illinois,  Virginia. 

States  with  little  corner  projections — Pennsylvania, 
Missouri,  New  Mexico,  Mississippi,  Alabama, 

States  with  corners  cut  out — Washington,  Utah, 
Nebraska,  Georgia,  Wyoming. 

Lessons  on  Comparative  Areas:  Some  lessons  of 
this  kind  are  suggested  in  the  introductory  paragraphs 
above.  The  ingenious  teacher  will  readily  devise 
others.  The  old  method  of  teaching  comparative  area 
by  having  the  number  of  square  miles  memorized  was 
burdensome  and  fruitless.  Bv  means  of  the  concrete 

%j 

illustrations,  which  the  dissected  map  affords,  approx¬ 
imate  comparative  areas  can  be  learned,  so  that  they 
will  be  held  easily  and  by  means  of  exercises  that  are 


in  themselves  a  pleasure  to  the  pupils.  The  whole 
secret  of  doing  this  lies  in  bringing  into  close  proximity 
the  areas  compared. 

Bounding  States:  Place  on  the  board  any  state 
and  call  on  the  pupils  to  select  from  the  box  and  place 
around  it  the  bounding  states.  Then  vary  the  exercise 
in  this  way:  place  on  the  board,  say  Missouri.  Pick 
up  in  turn  Oklahoma,  Arkansas,  Nebraska,  Mississippi, 
Indian  Territory,  Tennessee,  etc.,  and  let  the  pupil  pass 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


IB 


on  it  with  “yes”  or  “no.”  What  other  state  besides 
Missouri  has  eight  bounding  states  ? 

Position  and  Direction:  Place  some  state,  as  Ne¬ 
braska,  on  the  board,  and  let  the  pupil  place  Ohio,  Geor¬ 
gia,  Oregon  or  Wisconsin  in  what  he  thinks  the  right 
relative  position  to  Nebraska.  Now  let  him  fill  in  the 
intervening  states. 

To  Make  Outline  Sketches:  Use  the  dissected 
parts  as  patterns;  let  a  pupil  draw  on  separate  sheets, 
one  for  each  member  of  the  class,  outlines  of  the  states 
in  the  day’s  lesson,  to  be  filled  in  during  the  class  recita¬ 
tion  with  rivers,  cities,  etc. 

Rulers’  Salaries. 

The  pay  of  rulers  is  governed  by  no  apparent  rule 
of  proportion,  unless  it  is  that  the  pay  increases  with 
the  liability  to  assassination.  The  extremes  of  salary 
are  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  Czar  of  Russia  and  the 
President  of  Switzerland.  The  former  gets  $24,000  a 
day,  while  the  latter  gets  $7.92  a  day.  These  figures 
are  based  on  365  days  in  the  year,  for  monarchs  are 
supposed  to  be  always  working. 

These  executives — of  Russia  and  Switzerland — are 
at  the  extremes  of  the  rulers7  payroll,  the  first  getting 
$8,766,000  a  year  and  the  other  $2,900.  Between  these 
extremes  the  other  eleven  nations  are  scattered  in  a  hap¬ 
hazard  manner,  with  no  uniform  relation  between  the 
amount  of  yearly  salary  and  the  number  of  persons  who 


14 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


must  pay  it.  The  Emperor  of  Austria.,  who  has 
$4,380,000  annually  comes  under  the  Czar  of  all  the 
Kussias,  while  President  McKinley,  with  his  $50,000, 
comes  next  above  the  president  of  little  Switzerland. 
After  Austria  comes  Germany,  which  pays  Emperor 
William  $3,400,000;  then  the  King  of  Italy,  with 
$2,435,000;  Shah  of  Persia,  $2,335,000;  Queen  Vic¬ 
toria,  $1,875,000;  King  of  Belgium,  $632,000;  King 
of  Norway  and  Sweden,  $560,000;  Queen  of  the  Neth¬ 
erlands,  $292,000;  King  of  Greece,  $263,000,  and  the 
President  of  France,  $239,000.  President  Faure  re¬ 
ceives  but  little  more  regular  salary  than  President 
McKinley,  but  ’ he  has  fixed  perquisites  that  bring  his 
income  from  the  state  to  the  amount  given. 

An  idea  of  the  relative  proportion  between  these 
amounts  can  be  gained  if  you  consider  one  printed  line 
of  this  column  as  representing  the  salary  of  the  Czar, 
then  a  period  will  represent  that  of  the  President  of 
Switzerland,  and  one-fourth  of  the  letter  n  the  pay  of 
President  McKinley.  Half  a  line  will  be  the  amount 
the  Emperor  of  Austria  receives,  and  a  little  more  than 
a  fifth  of  a  line  what  Great  Britain  pays  to  Queen  Vic¬ 
toria. 

The  amounts  of  the  salaries  of  these  men  and 
women  bear  very  odd  relations  to  the  number  of  persons 
for  whose  benefit  they  are  supposed  to  administer  laws 
of  their  own  or  the  people’s  making.  Each  subject  of 
the  Czar  has  to  pay  annually  7  4-5  cents  to  his  ruler, 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


15 


and  stands  eighth  on  the  list;  while  the  Persians,  each 
of  whom  mnst  yearly  pay  to  the  Shah  30  3-4  cents,  head 
it.  Switzerland,  with  the  smallest  population  and  sal¬ 
ary,  does  not  pay  the  least  per  capita,  for  the  United 
States,  with  7-lOOths  of  a  cent  for  each  inhabitant,  is  at 
the  bottom  of  the  list.  Switzerland  being  next  above, 
with  8-100ths  of  a  cent.  Turkey,  with  20  cents  for 
each  subject,  naturally  comes  below  Persia,  and  Greece, 
with  11  2-5  cents,  comes  next.  Then  in  the  descending 
scale,  comes  Austria,  with  10  2-5  cents  for  each  subject 
to  pay  to  the  ruler ;  Belgium,  10  1-5  cents ;  Italy,  9 
cents ;  Norway  and  Sweden,  8  cents ;  then  Russia,  then 
Germany,  6  3-5  cents;  Holland,  6  1-5 ;  France,  5 ;  Great 
^Britain,  4  3-5,  then  Switzerland  and  the  United  States. 

From  the  Known  to  The  Belated  Unknown* 

For  the  teacher  who  is  wise  enough  to  see  it,  there 
is  a  rich  lesson  in  the  story  told  by  Mrs.  Ctitler  of  a  high 
school  girl  who,  having  become  interested  in  geology, 
thought  to  use  her  knowledge  as  the  basis  of  bed-time 
tales  for  her  little  brother : 

“Would  Robbie  like  to  have  each  night  a  part  of  a 
great,  long  story,  all  about  how  the  earth  was  made  V ’ 
she  asked  one  evening.  “P’raps  so,”  he  answered. 
“Will  you  tell  how  the  sidewalks  were  made  ?” 

“Oh,  yes !”  replied  his  sister,  “only  we  want  to  know 
first  how  the  ground  was  made  to  lay  the  sidewalk  on.” 

Night  after  night  the  story  went  on  while  Robbie 


16 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


showed  varying  degrees  of  interest,  but  never  so  much 
as  his  sister  had  expected.  Now  and  then  he  would  ask 
a  question  about  the  sidewalks,  showing  that  his  inter¬ 
est  was  centered  on  that  with  which  he  was  acquainted 
in  experience.  They  were  his  “point  of  contact”  with 
earth  structure.  It  was  because  he  hoped  to  learn 
something  about  how  the  sidewalks  were  made,  that  he 
was  trying  to  listen  patiently  to  all  the  rest  of  the  story. 

Years  afterwards,  when  our  schoolgirl  had  grown 
wiser,  she  learned  how  abnormal  and  unsatisfying  had 
been  her  method, — that  she  ought  to  have  begun  with 
what  the  child  already  knew  something  about  and  was 
interested  in,  and  thence  she  could  have  led  him  whither 
she  would.  To  the  high  school  girl,  the  sidewalks  were 
laid  on  the  ground ;  to  the  child,  the  ground  was  hidden 
under  the  sidewalks. 


Forming  Correct  Concepts  in  Geography. 

The  chief  value  of  “home  geography”  or  the  study 
of  the  earth’s  surface  at  first  hand  is:  (1)  The  child 
thus  comes  to  interpret  maps  intelligently,  for  maps  to 
a  child  properly  guided  in  the  exploration  and  study 
of  his  neighborhood  are  not  things  in  themselves,  but 
are  merely  representative  of  surface  features  of  the 
earth.  (2)  The  study  of  home  geography  incidentally 
includes  much  wholesome  nature  study.  (3)  It  gives 
a  stock  of  experimental  knowledge  or  sense-impressions 
out  of  which  to  build  mental  pictures  of  the  far  away 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


17 


things  which  require  an  exercise  of  the  constructive 
imagination  in  order  to  conceive  of  them  rightly;  and 
without  this  stock  of  sense-impressions  the  imagination 
has  no  material  out  of  which  to  build  pictures,  for  the 
imagination  is  not  creative.  We  cannot  imagine  any¬ 
thing  essentially  different  from  what  we  have  seen, 
heard,  felt,  tasted  or  smelled. 

An  intelligent  use  of  pictures  will  help  greatly  in 
this  field.  Without  pictures  it  would  be  practically  im¬ 
possible  to  give  the  children  of  North  Dakota  an  ade¬ 
quate  conception  of  a  mountain  or  of  a  sea-shore,  while 
the  children  of  Florida  need  the  same  kind  of  help  to 
conceive  of  snow  drifts.  The  knowledge  of  a  corn  field 
comes  in  the  same  way  to  the  children  in  Manitoba. 
The  pictures  in  the  text-books  in  geography  are  not 
merely  to  embellish  the  pages;  they  are  most  valuable 
means  of  assisting  the  pupil  to  see  in  his  mind’s  eye 
things  which  mere  verbal  description  would  not  make 
so  plain. 

Those  who  live  in  the  middle  temperate  regions  are 
most  fortunately  situated  for  teaching  geography.  A 
climate  which  gives  all  the  changes  of  four  seasons,  and 
a  landscape  presenting  the  variations  of  hill,  plain,  for¬ 
est,  river,  lake,  etc.,  has  the  elements  out  of  which  to 
construct  a  notion  of  all  lands.  The  lake  extended  by 
imagination  until  we  cannot  see  across  it,  and  with 
waves  greatly  enlarged,  will  stand  for  an  ocean  view ;  a 
magnified  hill  becomes  the  mountain  for  purposes  of 


18 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


illustration.  A  cold  day  in  winter,  intensified  with 
snow  drifts  exaggerated,  is  a  sufficiently  realistic  pic¬ 
ture  of  the  arctic  regions,  while  a  bit  of  hard,  naked  or 
stony  surface  with  the  rays  of  the  sun  beating  upon  it 
running  its  temperature  up  to  100  degrees  is  a  good 
enough  nucleus  from  which  the  mind  may  evolve  a  no¬ 
tion  of  a  desert. 

Mrs.  Ninette  M.  Lowater,  one  of  Wisconsin’s  most 
gifted  writers,  has  expressed  this  thought  most  beauti¬ 
fully  in  the  following  lines : 

I  need  not  seek  the  Pole’s  eternal  snows 
To  learn  their  wondrous,  silent  mystery; 

Each  year  the  Arctic  hither  comes  to  me, 

Bringing  the  weird  Aurora’s  changing  rose. 

Dark  skies,  in  which  each  planet  burns  and  glows, 

Gray  dawns,  which  scarce  reveal  gray  land  and  sea, 

And  noons  more  drear  than  night  itself  can  be, 

With  chilling  winds,  which  beat  with  cruel  blows. 

Here,  too,  I  know  the  ardent  Tropic’s  zone ; 

Long  days,  which  melt  to  nights  of  ardent  flame, 

Lush  grasses  hiding  life  unseen,  unknown, 

And  flying  winds,  too  swift,  too  light,  for  name. 

For  me  the  winter  wanes  and  summer  dies, 

A  traveler  whose  anchors  never  rise. 


The  Ladrones. 

Few  men  work. 

8,500  inhabitants. 

Discovered  in  1521. 

Pure  water  abounds. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


19 


A  chain  of  volcanic  islands. 

Spain  took  possession  in  1668. 

Mountains  range  from  1,000  to  3,000  feet. 

Chief  products  cocoanut  and  bread  fruit. 

The  bread  fruit  grows  on  a  tree  as  big  as  our  large 
apple  trees.  It  is  round,  and  grows  half  as  large  as  a 
man’s  head.  When  ripe  it  turns  yellow,  soft  and  sweet ; 
but  the  natives  take  it  green,  and  bake  it  in  an  oven 
until  the  rind  is  black.  This  they  scrape  off  and  eat 
the  inside,  which  is  soft  and  white  like  the  inside  of 
new-baked  bread,  having  neither  seed  nor  stone.  This 
fruit  is  in  season  eight  months  in  the  year,  and  the  na¬ 
tives  feed  upon  no  other  sort  of  bread  during  that  time. 


A  Lesson  on  Area  and  Direction. 

Write  answers  to  the  following  questions  and  test 
yourself  on  the  correctness  of  your  notions  of  compara¬ 
tive  area  and  direction. 

(1)  Which  is  larger — 

(a)  Texas  or  Australia? 

(b)  Madagascar  or  Iowa? 

(c)  Lake  Superior  or  the  Caspian  Sea? 

(2)  Name  the  largest  state  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

( 3 )  Which  extends  farther  south,  Africa  or  South  America  ? 

(4)  Is  the  greater  part  of  Africa  north  or  south  of  the 
equator  ? 

(5)  Should  you  make  a  journey  due  east  from  your  home, 
what  transatlantic  country  would  you  reach? 

(6)  What  part  of  South  America  would  a  traveler  come  to 
who  should  go  due  south  from  Detroit,  Michigan  ? 


20  SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 

Now  write  after  your  answers  to  (a),  (b)  and  (c) 
a  figure  which  shall  indicate  the  times  as  large . 

If  your  answers  to  all  these  are  approximately  cor¬ 
rect  you  have  done  better  than  teachers  generally  in 
institute  classes  are  able  to  do.  The  writer  has  had 
teachers  in  many  counties  of  several  states  write  an¬ 
swers  to  the  above ;  about  one- third  report  Texas  larger 
than  Australia,  and  very  few  estimate  Australia  as  more 
than  twice  as  large  as  Texas.  Not  one  in  fifty  thinks 
the  Caspian  is  as  large  as  the  combined  area  of  the 
Great  Lakes,  and  nearly  all  are  surprised  when  told 
that  all  the  Great  Lakes  together  are  only  about  half  as 
large  as  the  Caspian.  Usually  a  majority  say  New 
York  is  the  largest  state  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

In  teaching  comparative  area  much  use  should  be 
made  of  the  globe,  because  on  it  the  maps  are  all  drawn 
on  the  same  scale.  This  suggestion  will  apply  also  to 
the  teaching  of  form  and  position.  The  appearance 
and  relative  size  and  position  of  countries  as  they  ap¬ 
pear  on  the  globe  should  be  fixed  as  a  mental  impres¬ 
sion.  The  globe  should  be  used  much  more  than  merely 
to  teach  facts  of  mathematical  geography. 

To  remember  comparative  areas  by  the  interme¬ 
diary  process  of  holding  in  mind  figures  expressing  the 
number  of  square  miles  is  one  of  the  poorest  ways. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


21 


Lake  Superior. 

Lake  Superior  is  the.  largest  body  of  fresh  water  in 
the  world.  It  is  water, of  wonderful  purity  which  it 
holds,  too;  and  some  time — and  in  the  not  very  distant 
future,  either — the  people  who  live  in  the  large  cities  to 
the  west  and  south  will  come  to  this  lake  to  get  the 
water  for  their  homes.  It  will  not  be  so  remarkable  an 
engineering  feat  to  pipe  the  water  of  this  lake,  pure  and 
sparkling  and  fresh  from  its  cold  depths,  to  these  cities 
which  are  now  struggling  with  the  question  of  their 
water  supply,  and  meeting  all  sorts  of  difficulties  in 
their  efforts  to  get  water  fit  to  drink. 

All  down  through  this  thousand  feet  of  blue  there  is 
a  peculiar  coldness.  At  the  very  most,  the  temperature 
varies  through  winter  and  summer  not  more  than  six 
degrees.  Winter  and  summer,  this  great  lake  never 
changes  to  any  appreciable  extent,  so  that  if  you  dip 
your  fingertips  in  the  blue  surface  on  a  day  in  July,  or 
if  you  test  it  some  day  in  early  winter  when  you  have 
been  out  on  some  belated  ice-mailed  fishing-smack,  or 
when  you  have  gone  out  to  watch  the  fishermen  spearing 
their  supplies  through  the  thick  ice  in  mid- January, 
you  will  find  but  a  trifling  difference  in  the  tempera¬ 
ture.  Away  down  at  the  bottom,  too,  there  is  but  little 
variation  in  the  temperature,  for  it  stands  at  nearly 
forty  degrees  F ahrenheit  at  the  bottom,  and  varies  from 
forty  to  forty-six  degrees,  winter  and  summer,  at  the 


22 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


surface.  The  other  great  lakes,  though  cold,  are  not  in 
this  respect  like  Superior. 

The  whole  bottom  of  the  lake  is  believed  to  be  a 
strong  rock  basin,  though  it  would  seem  that  there  must 
be  great  springs  at  the  bottom  to  keep  up  the  enormous 
volume  of  water.  Prom  the  north  there  is  a  large 
amount  of  water  pouring  into  the  lake  year  in  and  year 
out;  the  swift-rushing,  narrow  banked  Nipigon  and 
other  streams  furnishing  no  small  part  of  the  supply. 
These  streams  in  a  large  measure  make  up  the  loss  from 
the  surface.  One  of  the  old  lake  captains — a  bronzed, 
kindly-faced  man  who  had  been  for  thirty-five  years  on 
the  lakes,  and  had  faced  death  many  a  time  in  the 
frightful  storms  which  sometimes  sweep  across  these 
beautiful  bodies  of  water,  told  me,  as  we  were  passing 
along  one  day  near  the  north  coast  of  Superior,  with  the 
headlands  and  inlets  and  glossy  green  bluffs  of  that 
most  picturesque  shore  in  full  view,  that  the  theory  that 
the  lake  was  slowly  going  down  in  size  was  true.  He 
maintained  that  he  could  tell  from  certain  landmarks 
along  the  shores,  with  which  he  is  as  familiar  as  he 
would  be  with  the  streets  of  his  old  Scottish  birthplace, 
that  the  lake  was  slowly — very  slowly — but  surely  re¬ 
ceding.  However,  it  will  be  some  centuries  yet  before 
there  will  be  any  appreciable  lessening  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  so  that  we  need  not  be  concerned. 

Another  interesting  and  sad  thing  about  this  lake  is 
that  it  never  gives  up  its  dead.  Whoever  encounters 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


23 


terrible  disaster — happily  infrequent  in  the  tourist  sea¬ 
son — and  goes  down  in  the  angry,  beautiful  blue  waters, 
never  comes  up  again.  From  those  earliest  days  when 
the  daring  French  voyageurs  in  their  trim  birch-bark 
'canoes  skirted  the  picturesque  shores  of  this  noble  but 
relentless  lake,  down  to  this  present  moment,  those  who 
have  met  their  deaths  in  mid-Superior  still  lie  on  the 
stone-paved  bottom.  It  may  be  that,  so  very  cold  is  the 
water,  some  of  their  bodies  may  have  been  preserved 
through  the  centuries.  Sometimes,  not  far  from  the 
shore,  the  bodies  of  people  who  have  been  wrecked  from 
fishing-smacks  or  from  pleasure-boats  overtaken  by  a 
cruel  squall  have  been  recovered,  but  only  after  the 
most  heroic  efforts  with  drag-net  or  by  the  diver. 
Once,  on  a  trip  down  the  lakes  I  met  a  clergyman  who, 
as  we  passed  a  point  of  land  some  miles  before  entering 
the  narrowing  of  the  lake  at  the  Soo,  pointed  out  the 
place  where  the  ill-fated  Algoma  went  down  on  the  reef 
some  years  ago ;  and  as  he  looked,  he  said  slowly : 

“I  was  at  the  funeral  of  one  man  who  went  down 
with  her,  and  the  only  reason  his  body  is  not  at  the  bot¬ 
tom  to-day,  with  the  other  thirty-eight  that  were  lost,  is 
because  it  was  caught  in  the  timbers  of  the  vessel,  and 
could  not  sink.” — St.  Nicholas. 


24 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


A  Review  Lesson  on  the  Map  of  Europe. 

Name  the  twenty  cities  shown  in  this  map.  On 
what  river  is  each  situated?  Name  three  important 
cities  that  are  omitted  and  show  where  they  should  be 
indicated  on  the  map. 


There  are  shown,  in  whole  or  in  part,  ten  independ¬ 
ent  monarchies,  two  republics  and  four  semi-independ¬ 
ent  countries.  Point  out  and  name  them  all. 

Point  out  and  name  twenty  bodies  of  water  and 
seven  important  islands  or  groups  of  islands  which  are 
shown  in  whole  or  in  part, 

A  simple  outline  map  like  this  is  easily  reproduced 
on  the  board.  When  the  class  have  finished  the  work 
on  Europe  as  given  in  the  book,  spring  a  surprise  on 
them  some  morning  by  placing  this  sketch  on  the  board 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


25 


and  see  how  many  can  answer  all  the  above  questions. 
If  you  have  taught  them  by  the  Tracing  and  Sketching 
method  this  review  test  will  be  easy. 


Sandwich  Island  Food. 

A  Sandwich  Island  boy  dines  upon  bananas,  and 
they  cost  nothing  at  all.  Bananas  in  the  Sandwich 
Islands  are  as  cheap  as  horse  chestnuts  or  acorns  are 
in  America.  You  can  have  them  for  the  picking. 
Brought  to  the  tourist  on  the  ships,  they  cost  only  three 
cents  for  a  bunch  of  five  dozen.  After  the  Sandwich 
Island  boy  dines  upon  bananas,  he  takes  figs,  with  cocoa- 
nuts  and  all  the  oranges  he  wants.  Then,  for  desert, 
he  has  breadfruit,  yams,  tamarinds  and  pomegranates, 
all  for  the  picking.  What  wonder  that  the  children 
never  ask  for  candy  or  sugar  in  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
though  there  are  many  sugar  factories  there!  And 
what  wonder  that  many  come  to  this  country  and  be¬ 
hold  a  pie  for  the  first  time ! 


A  Remarkable  City. 

1.  What  city  is  built  on  almost  as  many  islands,  and 
has  almost  as  many  streets  of  water  as  Venice? 

2.  Did  the  sea,  as  at  Venice,  leave  these  ninety 
islands  through  natural  agencies  ? 

3.  How  is  the  sea  now  kept  back  from  this  city  ? 

4.  In  winter,  what  care  is  taken  to  avoid  the  dan¬ 
ger  from  the  sea  ? 


26 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


5.  Why  are  willow  trees  extensively  cultivated  in 
that  country  ? 

6.  Of  what  material  are  most  of  their  houses  built  ? 

7.  Describe  their  beds  in  the  wall,  and  their  flights 
of  stairs  on  the  outside  of  their  houses. 

8.  Dor  what  are  the  upper  decks  of  many  of  their 
small  vessels  used  ? 

9.  Their  streets  are  wide,  their  three  hundred 
bridges  strong,  vet  the  heavy  trucking  is  done  in  what 
way  ? 

10.  Do  you  see  any  reasons  why  they  have  become 
an  industrious  people  ? 

11.  Can  the  low  lands — the  “hollow  land” — about 
their  city  be  so  flooded  as  to  keep  back  an  attacking 
armv  ? 

t/ 

12.  Has  it  ever  been  done  ?  When  ? 


English  Translation  of  Some  Geographical 

Names. 


Land’s  End, 

Finisterre. 

Lake  Bottom, 

Fond  du  Lac. 

Dog  Plain, 

Prairie  du  Chien. 

Green  Hills, 

Vermont. 

Three  Hills, 

Tremont. 

Abbot’s  Town, 

Abingdon. 

'  Water’s  Edge, 

Bordeaux. 

White  Oak, 

Albuquerque. 

Bed  Castle, 

Alhambra. 

Bear  Town, 

Berne. 

Bed  Staff, 

Baton  Bouge. 

Slinger  Islands, 

Balearic  Islands. 

Hawk  Islands, 

Azores. 

High  Land, 

Auverne. 

South  Land, 

Australia. 

What-do-you-say, 

Yucatan, 

IN  GEOGRAPHY 


27 


Hushing  Biver, 
Swampy, 

Clearwater, 

Buck, 

Dry  Belt, 

Smoke  Vomiter, 
Park  Valley, 
Foggy  Place, 
Oxford, 

Black  Mountain, 
Grand  Biver, 

White  Mountain, 

Skunk  Town, 

Big  Bend, 

Castle  Edwin, 
Stallion  Pen, 
Lion  Town, 

Cold  Spring, 
Burnt  Face, 
Hell’s  Mouth, 
Snow  Mountains, 
Burning  Pine, 
Smoked  Pipe, 
Hockland, 

Coiling  Snake, 
Big  Foot, 

Sleepy  Eye, 
Whale  Islands, 
Mud  Fish, 

Water  Neck, 
Smoky  Water, 
Two  Bivers, 
Bobber  Islands, 
Shallow  Biver, 
Swamp  Fort, 


Wisconsin. 

Athabasca. 

Windermere. 

Eau  Claire. 

Washita. 

Arizona. 

Vesuvius. 

Valparaiso. 

Chautauqua. 

Bosporus. 

Montenegro. 

Guadalquiver. 

Bio  Grande. 

Mont  Blanc. 

Weisshorn. 

Sierra  Nevada. 

Chicago. 

Tennessee. 

Edinburgh. 

Stutgard. 

Singapore. 

Sandusky. 

Ethiopia. 

Pernambuco. 

Himalaya. 

Potomac. 

Hoboken. 

Penobscot. 

Orinoco. 

Patagonia. 

Iowa. 

Orkneys. 

Panama. 

Niagara. 

Kansas. 

Nashota. 

Ladrones. 

Nebraska. 

Leyden. 


28 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


A  Map  Lesson. 

Here  are  represented  in  whole  or  in  part  sixteen 
political  divisions,  twenty-two  cities,  and  over  twenty 
rivers  and  other  bodies  of  water.  Can  you  name  them  ? 
If  not,  the  chances  are  that  your  advanced  class  in 
geography  cannot.  A  sketch  map  of  this  kind  placed 
on  the  board  occasionally  makes  a  valuable  drill  exer¬ 
cise. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


29 


A  Subterranean  City. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  human  beings  cannot 
flourish — in  fact,  can  hardly  support  existence — with¬ 
out  an  ample  supply  of  sun  light.  Yet.  it  appears  that 
there  is  at  least  one  civilized  community  which  gets 
along  very  well,  although  deprived  of  this  advantage. 
In  the  salt  mines  of  Wieliczka,  in  Galicia,  a  population 
of  1,000  working  people — men,  women  and  children — 
has  dwelt  for  centuries,  in  health  and  contentment,  sev¬ 
eral  hundred  meters  below  the  earth’s  surface.  Gal¬ 
leries  extending  more  than  eighty  kilometers  have  been 
hewn  from  the  glittering  mineral,  and  houses,  a  town 
hall,  assembly  rooms,  and  even  a  theatre,  built  entirely 
of  the  same.  The  little  church,  with  its  statues — all 
of  rock  salt — is  accounted  one  of  Europe’s  architectural 
wonders.  Well  graded  streets  are  met  with,  and  spa¬ 
cious  squares,  lighted  by  electricity.  In  some  cases,  not 
an  individual  in  successive  generations  of  these  modern 
cave-dwellers  has  ever  beheld  the  light  of  day;  and  yet 
their  average  longevity  is  said  to  be  remarkable.  Salt, 
of  course,  is  unfavorable  to  the  propagation  of  microbes, 
and  its  hygienic  properties  are  proverbial.  Could  a  san- 
atarium  be  constructed  of  this  material,  we  might  wit¬ 
ness  surprising  results  in  the  treatment  of  consumption. 

— Popular  Science. 


30 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


A  Map  Lesson  on  American  Cities. 


Let  pupils  name  each  city,  body  of  water,  state  or 
country  shown  in  these  outline  sketches.  Draw  on  the 
board  similar  sketches  of  European  cities.  The  exer¬ 
cise  may  be  turned  into  a  game  by  having  each  pupil 
make  a  sketch  of  some  city  and  its  neighboring  waters, 
and  the  rest  of  the  class  name  them. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


31 


The  DeviPs  Pump. 

One  of  the  greatest  combinations  of  natural  and  arti¬ 
ficial  curiosities  on  the  coast  of  California  is  called  the 
Devil’s  Pump.  The  pholas  or  shell  miners,  a  species 
of  mollusk  which  excavates  immense  caverns  in  the  very 
hardest  stone,  have  tunneled  the  entire  coast  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  “pump.”  Water  rushes  into  these  cav¬ 
erns  with  each  succeeding  tide  flow,  and  in  this  cylin¬ 
drical  opening  some  distance  from  the  water’s  edge.  It 
is  estimated  that  this  hole,  which  connects  with  the  sea 
cavern,  is  75  to  100  feet  in  depth.  Every  time  the  tide 
rushes  into  the  cavern  beneath,  the  “pump”  throws 
water  to  the  height  of  a  full  100  feet  above  the  mouth 
of  the  opening.  The  Indians  formerly  called  it  by  a 
name  which  signified  “fairy  water  gun,”  but  the  irrever¬ 
ent  white  men  have  given  it  the  title  of  the  Devil’s 
Pump,  and  by  that  name  it  will  probably  be  known  to 
future  generations. 


Down  With  the  Maps. 

If  you  want  to  keep  your  wall  maps  neat  and 
clean,  have  them  mounted  in  close-fitting  cases,  keep 
the  maps  rolled  and  the  cases  shut.  Kept  in  this  wav 
they  can  be  preserved  for  generations. 

To  keep  the  books  of  a  library  from  getting  soiled  or 
otherwise  injured,  pack  them  in  a  case  with  doors,  and 
keep  the  doors  shut  and  locked.  If  the  doors  are  of 


32 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


glass  the  books,  can  be  seen  by  visitors  and  others,  and 
by  keeping  the  doors  locked  you  can  always  be  sure  of 
having  the  books  arranged  in  an  orderly  fashion. 

The  carpet  and  other  furnishings  of  a  parlor  can 
also  be  preserved  indefinitely  by  following  the  simple 
recipe,  keep  out — dont  use  it. 

But  if  maps  and  books  are  to  accomplish  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  their  existence,  they  should  be  used.  The  best 
use  which  can  be  made  of  a  good  book  is  to  wear  it  out. 
Wall  maps  have  this  advantage  over  books:  If  kept  in 
sight,  they  can  be  used  without  the  wear  of  handling. 
Besides,  the  child  will  get  a  great  deal  at  odd  moments 
incidentally  and  even  unconsciously  from  wall  maps  if 
they  are  kept  in  sight.  His  eye  wanders  to  the  wall 
and  he  notes  the  unbroken  coast  and  great  size  of  Africa, 
the  multiplied  indentations  of  Europe  ;  Florida,  Yuca¬ 
tan  and  other  projections  of  North  America  are  salient 
facts  which  impress  themselves  on  his  memory.  The 
short  western  slope  of  South  America  and  the  long  east¬ 
ern  slope  with  its  immense  rivers  impress  his  eye  as 
often  as  he  looks  at  the  map.  He  sees  the  map  of  the 
United  States  and  cannot  resist  the  silent  tuition  which 
it  offers.  The  large  water  surface  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
with  their  wide,  trumpet-shaped  northeastern  outlet  ; 
the  outlines  of  his  own  state  and  its  bounding  states ;  the 
great  Mississippi  with  its  tree-like  trunk  and  branches 
and  its  mouth  extending  into  the  Gulf;  the  crocodile, 
Cuba,  crawling  out  of  the  Gulf  and  about  to  bite  the 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


33 


left  leg  of  the  turtle,  Hayti,  just  ahead;  curiosities  and 
coincidences  innumerable,  as  a  state  that  is  bounded  by 
eight  states,  another  that  has  a  profile  of  George  Wash¬ 
ington’s  face  on  its  western  boundary,  a  lake  that  is 
shaped  like  a  seal — such  are  a  few  of  the  things  that  the 
children  will  learn  from  maps  without  being  taught. 
But  keep  the  maps  in  sight ;  they  may  wear  out  sooner, 
but  when  rolled  in  the  case  they  are  of  no  use  whatever. 


A  Submarine  Mountain  in  the  Middle  of 
the  Atlantic. 

Almost  at  the  very  centre  of  the  Atlantic  ocean — 
only  a  trifle  north  of  the  equator  and  about  half-way 
between  South  America  and  Africa— is  a  submarine 
mountain,  so  high  that,  in  spite  of  the  immense  depth 
of  the  sea,  it  thrusts  its  peak  seventy  feet  above  the 
waves.  This  peak,  startling  from  its  position,  forms  a 
labyrinth  of  islets,  the  whole  not  over  half  a  mile  in  cir¬ 
cumference,  known  as  St.  Paul’s  Bocks.  So  steep  is  the 
mountain  of  which  this  lonely  resting-place  of  sea-birds 
is  the  summit,  that  one  mile  from  these  rocks  a  five- 
hundred  fathom  line  with  which  soundings  were  at¬ 
tempted  by  Boss  on  his  voyage  to  the  Antarctic,  failed 
to  touch  bottom. 

Were  the  bed  of  the  sea  to  be  suddenly  elevated  to  a 
level  with  the  dry  land,  St.  Paul’s  Bocks  would  be  the 
cloud-capped  peak  of  a  mountain  rising  in  sheer  ascent 


34 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


in  the  midst  of  a  broad  plain.  They  are  supposed  to 
have  been  formed  by  the  same  disturbance  of  nature 
which  separated  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  from  Africa. 

— Gustav  Kobbe. 


The  Eskimo. 

The  name  Eskimo  means  raw  fish  eater  and  is  given 
to  the  northern  people  in  derision,  while  they  style 
themselves,  like  “the  400,”  Innuit,  “the  people.”  By 
those  who  know  them  best  the  Innuit  are  described  as 
a  fine  race  physically,  naturally  industrious,  possessing 
a  marked  degree  of  mechanical  skill,  lively  and  full  of 
fun. 

Our  geographies  used  to  picture  the  Eskimos  crawl¬ 
ing  into  beautifully  symmetrical  houses  of  snow  blocks, 
and  so  we  are  apt  to  think  of  them.  But  this  is  far 
from  true;  the  snow  house  is  seldom  used  except  for  a 
temporary  shelter  in  traveling.  Instead,  their  homes 
are  burrows  in  the  ground.  A  hole  fifteen  to  twenty 
feet  square  is  dug  and  the  sides  lined  with  logs.  Logs 
are  then  laid  across  the  top  and  on  these  are  heaped 
smaller  sticks  with  earth  and  sod  over  all.  A  small 
hole,  perhaps  a  foot  and  a  half  square,  is  left  for  light, 
and  over  this  is  drawn  a  piece  of  seal  or  walrus  intes¬ 
tine  which  is  transparent.  The  entrance  is  sometimes 
at  the  side  and  sometimes  in  the  center  of  the  floor  and 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


35 


leads  through  a  small  tunnel  to  another  room,  much 
like  the  first,  hut  smaller,  from  which  a  rude  ladder 
leads  to  the  upper  air.  These  huts  are  below  ground, 
their  roofs  being  but  slightly  elevated  above,  the  sur¬ 
rounding  land.  They  are  heated  by  rude  lamps,  fash¬ 
ioned  like  the  half  of  a  barrel  head,  hollowed  in  the 
center.  Along  the  rim  a  kind  of  moss  floating  in  the 
oil  serves  as  a  wick,  while  the  dripping  of  seal  blubber 
above  the  lamp,  keeps  up  the  supply  of  oil.  Such 
houses  are  always  crowded  and  the  atmosphere  within 
is  horribly  hot  and  offensive. 

There  is  but  slight  difference  between  the  costume 
of  men  and  women  among  these  people.  The  Eskimo 
girl  has  a  fur  hood,  which  is  attached  to  the  upper  gar¬ 
ment,  drawn  about  her  head ;  and  this  same  hood  forms . 
a  snug  nest  to  put  baby  brother  in  when  she  is  playing 
nurse.  Sometimes  these  fur  coats  are  made  of  many 
pieces  of  different  furs,  deftly  joined  (for  the  women 
are  experts  with  the  needle),  and  are  ornamented  with 
beads,  forming  a  picturesque  costume.  The  boots  are 
of  seal  skin,  with  the  fur  on,  and  large  enough  to  allow 
a  generous  wadding  of  dry  grass  to  be  worn  within  over 
the  woven  grass  stockings. 

Such  boots  are  by  far  the  best  foot  gear  for  the 
Arctic,  and  whaling  ships  generally  stop  at  some  vil¬ 
lage  to  get  a  supply  of  these  for  the  men. 

When  the  Eskimo  family  gather  for  meals  the  food 
is  placed  in  the  center  of  the  circle  and  a  vessel  of  seal 


36 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


or  fish  oil  near.  Every  one  helps  himself,  using  his 
fingers  and  dipping  the  food  in  the  oil,  or  else  thrusting 
his  fingers  in  the  oil  and  sucking  them.  Until  recently 
all  their  household  utensile,  spears,  harpoons,  boats, 
etc.,  were  made  by  themselves,  but  gradually,  through 
intercourse  with  traders,  whaling  vessels  and  mission¬ 
aries,  they  are  learning  the  value  and  use  of  many  arti¬ 
cles  of  civilization,  and  it  will  probably  not  be  many 
years  before  these  simple  utensils  will  be  common  in 
every  Innuit-  home. — Dr.  Wilbur. 


America  One  Hundred  Years  Ago. 

Buttons  were  scarce  and  expensive,  and  the  trousers 
were  fastened  with  pegs  or  laces. 

Pork,  beef,  salt  fish,  potatoes  and  hominy  were  the 
staple  diet  all  the  year  round. 

The  whipping  post  and  pillory  were  still  standing  in 
Boston  and  New  York. 

Two  stage  coaches  bore  all  the  travel  between  New 
York  and  Boston. 

Virginia  contained  one^-fifth  of  the  whole  popula¬ 
tion  of  the  country. 

There  was  only  one  hat  factory,  and  that  made 
cocked  hats. 

There  was  not  a  public  library  in  the  United  States. 

St,  Louis  and  New  Orleans  were  Spanish  cities. 

There  were  no  railroads,  no  steamboats,  no  tele¬ 
graphs,  no  Chicago. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


37 


A  Bridge  636  Feet  High. 

The  highest  bridge  of  any  kind  in  the  world  is  the 
Loe  River  viaduct,  on  the  Antofagasta  Railway,  in 
Bolivia,  South  America.  The  place  where  this  highest 
railway  structure  has  been  erected  is  over  the  Melo 
rapids  in  the  Upper  Andes,  and  is  between  the  two 
sides  of  a  canon,  which  is  situated  ten  thousand  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  Pacific.  This  celebrated  bridge 
is  exactly  six  hundred  and  thirty-six  and  one-half  feet 
in  height.  The  length  of  the  principal  span  is  eighty 
feet,  and  the  distance  between  abutments  (total  length 
of  bridge)  is  eight  hundred  and  two  feet.  The  largest 
column  is  three  hundred  and  fourteen  feet  two  inches 
long.  The  guage  of  the  road  is  three  feet  six  inches,  and 
trains  cross  the  bridge  at  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  an  hour. 


The  Countries  that  Feed  the  World. 


The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  million 
bushels  of  wheat  raised  in  the  countries  named,  in  1897  : 


United  States  . 

. 492 

Roumania  . . 

.  44 

Russia  . 

. 387 

Argentina  . 

.  37 

Asia  Minor  . 

. 316 

Austria  . .  .  . 

.  33 

France  . 

. 270 

Bulgaria  . 

.  30 

British  India  . 

. 180 

Turkey  (Europe)  . 

.  28 

Germany  . 

. 108 

Australasia  . 

.  24 

Italy  . 

. 102 

Belgium  . 

.  21 

Spain  . 

. 101 

Chile  . 

.  15 

Hungary  . 

.  98 

Algeria  . 

....  13 

Great  Britain . 

.  53 

Egypt  . 

.  11 

Canada  . 

. 51 

38 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


The  States  that  Feed  the  World. 

The  official  report  of  the  grain  crop  for  1897  will 
interest  the  pupils  in  the  geography  class.  The  figures 
after  the  name  of  each  state  in  this  list  indicate  millions 
of  bushels  : 


WHEAT. 

CORN. 

OATS. 

Minnesota  . .  .  . 

..  60 

Nebraska  . 

. 241 

Iowa  . 

.104 

Kansas  . 

..  48 

Illinois  .  .  . 

. 232 

Illinois  . 

.  93 

Ohio  . 

.  ..  38 

Iowa  . 

.  . .  . .220 

Wisconsin  . 

.  62 

Indiana  . 

..  33 

Missouri  .  . 

:. . . .172 

Nebraska  . 

.  52 

Now  take  a  good  look  at  these  states  on  the  map. 
Remembering  that  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  are  also 
important  grain  producing  states,  we  have  a  mnemonic 
key  to  the  great  grain  area.  Take  Illinois  as  a  center 
and  add  the  extent  of  two  states  in  every  direction,  east, 
south,  west  and  north.  Or  take  a  center  in  northern 
Illinois,  say  about  100  miles  west  of  Chicago,  and  with 
a  radius  reaching  to  Pittsburg,  to  Chattanooga  or  to 
the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  draw  a  circumference  ;  the  circle 
thus  described  is  the  granary  of  America. 


Across  The  Andes. 

South  America  has  already  three  railroads  across  the 
Andes;  one  of  them,  the  newest,  is  of  pre-eminent  in¬ 
terest,  and  claims  for  itself  the  title  of  Transandine. 
It  connects  Buenos  Ayres  with  V alparaiso.  It  has  nine 
and  a  half  miles  of  tunnels,  one  of  which  is  spiral,  wind¬ 
ing  around  a  curve  of  thirteen  hundred  feet  diameter. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


39 


These  tunnels  are  intended  largely  to  take  the  place  of 
snow-sheds.  The  highest  of  them  is  three  miles  long, 
and  ten  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty  feet  above  the 

-  t j 

sea. 

The  entire  length  from  sea  to  sea  is«  eight,  hundred 
and  eighty-two  miles.  The  scenery  is  grand  beyond  de¬ 
scription.  Aconcagua  lifts  a  mighty  mass  of  barren 
rock  and  gleaming  snow  twenty-two  thousand  five  hun¬ 
dred  feet  above  the  sea,  and  makes  an  impression  of 
sublime  and  awful  majesty.  The  route  is  destined  to 
be  much  sought  by  tourists,  but  its  great  value  will  be 
for  commercial  purposes.  Chiefly  it  will  serve  the  in¬ 
terests  of  the  cattle  trade.  It  will  largely  increase  the 
commerce  of  Valparaiso. 

The  opening  of  this  road  will  lead  to  the  extension 
of  other  roads  from  north  to  south  along  the  line  of  the 
Andes  until  almost  the  entire  length  of  the  continent 
will  be  traversed,  and  one  will  be  able  to  travel  in  a 
palace-car  from  the  Caribbean  Sea,  to  Buenos  Ayres. 
Thirty  years  ago  there  was  hardly  a  mile  of  railroad  in 
all  South  America ;  now  there  are  over  twenty  thousand 
miles  of  railroad  track  in  operation. 

Other  great  railroad  tunnels  are  Mt.  St.  Gothard 
and  Mt.  Cenis  in  the  Alps,  and  the  IToosac  tunnel,  in 
the  northwestern  part  of  Massachusetts.  The  one  under 
the  St.  Clair  is  the  greatest  tunnel  under  a  river. 


40 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


The  St.  Clair  Tunnel. 

The  St.  Clair  river  is  neither  long  nor  very  deep, 
nor  is  it  useful  for  water  power,  hut  commercially  it  is 
the  most  important  river  in  the  world.  More  vessels 
and  a  greater  tonnage  pass  through  it  each  season  than 
through  the  Suez  canal  in  a  year. 

A  glance  at  the  map  shows  that  this  short  river  is 
in  the  line  of  a  great  railway.  To  span  it  with  a  draw¬ 
bridge  would  be  impracticable.  Why?  To  make  a 
bridge  high  enough  for  vessels  to  go  under  it  would  be 
very  expensive.  Until  a  few  years  ago  trains  were  taken 
over  the  St,  Clair  on  a  large  ferry  boat,  but  in  1892  a 
tunnel  was  finished.  This  tunnel  is  a  big  iron  tube 
twenty  feet  in  diameter  and  over  a  mile  long.  How 
this  tube  was  placed  in  position  under  the  river  is  the 
subject  of  an  interesting  article  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  for  August,  1894. 

Seven  hundred  men  worked  for  more  than  a  year 
and  a  half  to  make  this  tunnel,  which  ranks  among  the 
greatest  engineering  feats  of  modern  times.  The  top  of 
the  great  tube  is  about  twenty-five  feet  below  the  bottom 
of  the  river. 

An  average  of  about  six  hundred  freight  cars  per 
day,  besides  passenger  trains,  are  taken  through  this 
tunnel ;  some  days  over  a  thousand  are  taken  through. 

The  tunnel  cost  over  two  million  dollars.  Work 
went  on  simultaneously  from  both  ends;  two  immense 
iron  shields,  circular  in  form,  being  pushed  forward  by 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


41 


hydraulic  pressure,  the  clay  being  excavated  out  of  them 
from  behind  and  the  permanent  iron  tubing  built  in  suc¬ 
cessive  sections  as  they  were  pushed  forward.  When 
the  shields  came  together  in  the  middle  they  met  with¬ 
out  any  perceptible  variation.  One  of  them  had  been 
built  on  the  Canadian,  the  other  on  the  Michigan  side, 
to  avoid  the  tariff  duty ;  they  were  both  left,  in  the  mid¬ 
dle  of  the  tunnel  where  they  met,  the  last  section  of  the 
iron  tube  being  built  through  them. 

The  designer  and  builder  of  this  great  work  is 
Joseph  Hobson,  a  native  Canadian;  he  ranks  among  the 
great  civil  engineers  of  the  world. 


Highest  and  Lowest  States. 

Every  school  boy  knows  which  is  the  smallest  and 
which  the  largest  state  in  the  Union,  but  how  many 
know  which  is  the  lowest  and  which  the  highest  ? 

According  to  the  recently  announced  results  of 
measurements  and  calculations  made  by  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  Delaware  is  the  lowest  State, 
its  elevation  above  sea  level  averaging  only  sixty  feet. 
Colorado  is  the  highest,  averaging  sixty-eight  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea.,  while  Wyoming  is  a  close  second,  only 
one  hundred  feet  lowrer  than  Colorado. 

In  minimum  elevation  Florida  and  Louisiana  dis¬ 
pute  for  second  place  after  Delaware,  their  average  ele¬ 
vation  being,  for  each,  one  hundred  feet. 


42 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


Taking  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  our  country 
lies  slightly  above  the  average  elevation  of  the  land  of 
the  globe. 


The  Great  Manchester  Canal. 

In  a  former  number  of  The  Quarterly  we  published 
an  account  of  the  great  German  canal.*  Many  teachers 
of  geography  found  it  valuable  supplementary  work. 
Let  the  class  now  take  their  maps  and  note  the  location 
of  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  The  latter  is  some 
thirty-five  miles  inland,  but  it  is  now  a  seaport. 

On  the  first  of  January,  1894,  was  finished  one  of 
the  greatest  feats  of  engineering  skill  ever  attempted; 
on  that  day  was  opened  the  great  canal  extending  from 
Manchester  to  Liverpool.  It  was  more  than  ten  years 
in  construction,  and  cost  $75,000,000.  The  difficulties 
in  the  way  seemed  at  first  unsurmountable.  The  people 
of  Liverpool  were  opposed  to  the  building  of  this  canal. 
(Why?)  The  railroads  leading  from  Manchester  to 
the  sea  had  an  immense  traffic  and  the  companies  own¬ 
ing  these  roads  opposed  the  project  with  all  their  influ¬ 
ence.  Some  of  these  lines,  as  well  as  several  little  old- 
fashioned  canals,  lay  across  the  route  and  so  had  the 
right  of  way.  These  roads  had  to  be  elevated  and  car¬ 
ried  over  the  great  canal  on  high  bridges.  One  of  the 
little  canals  is  lifted  high  in  air  and  crosses  the  big 

*  See  “Tracing  and  Sketching  Lessons,”  No.  1  of  The  Quarterly,  page  16. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


43 


canal  in  a  steel  aqueduct  swinging  on  a  central  pier. 
This  aqueduct  full  of  water  and  containing  a  canal  boat 
swings  around  to  let  ocean  vessels  pass  through  the  big 
canal;  the  aqueduct  extends  ninety  feet  on  either  side 
of  the  central  pier,  and  when  full  of  water  weighs  1,400 
tons. 

During  some  of  the  years  while  this  stupendous 
work  was  in  process  of  construction,  16,000  men  and 
boys  were  employed  upon  it,  aided  by  100  steam  excava¬ 
tors.,  194  steam  cranes,  180  steam  engines,  and  209 
steam  pumps.  The  city  of  Manchester  furnished  $25,- 
000,000  of  the  necessary  capital,  and  has  a  majority  of 
the  directors  in  the  government  of  the  canal. 


Oysters  in  Trees. 

The  other  day  I  heard  somebody  speak  of  oysters 
hanging  upon  the  branches  of  trees  on  the  borders  of 
the  Chesapeake  Bay.'"' 

“That  sounds  like  a  fairy  tale,”  thought  I,  “I  al¬ 
ways  supposed  oysters  grew  under  water.  I  never  knew 
they  hung  on  trees  like  apples.  A  curious  sort  of  oysters 
those  must  be  which  grow  on  trees  along  the  banks  of  the 
Chesapeake !” 

Chesapeake  Bay  has  the  finest  oysters  in  the  world. 
The  reason  they  are  sometimes  found  growing  on  tree 
branches  is  this :  The  spawn  of  the  oyster  floats  about 
in  the  water,  tossed  by  wind  and  waves.  It  has  the  qual- 


44 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


ity  of  attaching  itself  to  any  solid  substance  it  touches. 
Sometimes  it  might  be  the  bottom  of  a  ship,  a  rock,  or  a 
tree  branch.  The  bottom  of  a  ship  often  needs  scraping 
on  account  of  the  shell  fish  adhering  to  it. 

The  branches  of  trees  often  droop  into  the  water. 
They  do  it  along  the  borders  of  the  Chesapeake  the  same 
as  on  the  banks  of  any  other  river  or  bay.  At  high  tide 
such  branches  will  be  covered  with  water,  and  when  the 
tide  goes  back,  the  branches  come  to  the  surface  again. 

The  spawn  sticks  on  those  boughs  when  they  are  be- 
neath  the  waves.  In  a  few  days  the  tiny  oysters  begin 
to  develop,  and  before  long  at  every  low  tide  the  branch 
can  be  seen  hanging  out,  with  little  oysters  growing  all 
over  it.  Sometimes  a  branch  which  is  often  under  water 
will  be  nearly  covered  with  small  oysters. 

They  do  not  grow  very  large,  to  be  sure.  To  attain 
perfection  an  oyster  must  be  always  under  water,  and 
these  hang  half  the  time  out  of  it.  When  they  are  ex¬ 
posed  too  long  to  the  hot  sun,  they  die.  Their  weight 
often  causes  them  to  fall  off. 

Little  oysters  are  sometimes  transplanted  from  the 
beds  at  the  bottom  of  the  bay.  They  are  planted  in 
oyster-beds  in  other  places  where,  in  about  two  years, 
they  grow  to  maturity. — Harper’s  Young  People. 

In  the  shallowest  part  this  canal  is  twenty-six  feet 
deep;  its  width  is  230  feet.  It  will  admit  the  largest 
ocean  vessels  with  the  possible  exception  of  a  very  few. 
The  sides  of  the  canal  through  almost  its  entire  length 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


45 


are  immense  docks  for  the  loading  and  unloading  of 
vessels. 

The  chief  engineer,  Mr.  E.  Leader  Williams,  ranks 
among  the  great  civil  engineers  of  the  world.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  the  building  of  ship  canals  is  now, 
more  than  ever,  gaining  favor  among  industrial  and 
commercial  peoples.  It  is  now  proposed  to  make  Paris 
and  Brussels  seaports  by  means  of  ship  canals.  A  few 
years  ago  the  Clyde  was  a  little  stream  which  in  low 
stages  of  water  might  be  waded.  The  city  of  Glasgow 
converted  it  into  a  ship  canal  thirty  feet  deep,  which 
to-day  furnishes  dockage  to  an  immense  traffic,  and 
Glasgow  is  the  second  city  of  the  British  Empire,  a  rank 
which  she  has  attained  largely  as  a  result  of  the  build¬ 
ing  of  the  Clyde  canal,  on  whose  banks  are  now  built 
more  steel  ships  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 


A  Friday  Afternoon  Contest  at  Riffle  Creek. 

What  middle  aged  American  does  not  remember 
with  pleasure  the  old  spelling  game  of  “choose  up  and 
spell  down”  which  used  to  brighten  a  half  hour  of  Fri¬ 
day  afternoon  ?  It  appealed  to  a  motive  which  was  pos¬ 
sibly  not  the  highest  and  yet  a  wholesome  and  worthy 
one,  the  desire  to  measure  strength  with  one’s  fellows 
and  to  excel  in  competition. 

The  geography  class  in  Jenkins’  school  at  Riffle 


46 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


Creek*  had  been  over  the  work  in  Europe  as  outlined  in 
the  Manual,  and  had  reviewed  it.  One  day  the  teacher 
said  they  might  have  a  geography  contest.  Leaders 
were  appointed  to  “choose  up,”  and  the  rules  of  the 
game  were  explained.  Any  country,  city  river,  moun¬ 
tain,  lake,  etc.,  might  be  named  by  a  pupil  on  one  side 
and  the  corresponding  one  on  the  other  side  must  re¬ 
spond  with  one  beginning  with  the  last  letter  of  the  name 
given. 

The  teacher  wrote  a  list  of  the  names  spoken.  (Some¬ 
times  he  had  to  write  very  rapidly.)  If  a  pupil  did  not 
respond  with  fair  promptness  he  said,  “Next,”  and  a 
point  was  scored  against  the  side  to  which  the  delin¬ 
quent  belonged.  Anyone  who  repeated  a  name  already 
given  was  to  be  counted  out  and  his  side  lost  a  point. 
The  first  round  ran : 


Paris,  Seine,  Etna, 

Sardinia,  England,  Alps, 

Antwerp,  Denmark,  Sweden, 

Po,  Kronstadt,  Nice, 

Oporto,  Turin,  Elbe, 

Orleans,  North  Cape,  Elba. 


But  thus  far  it  was  little  more  than  a  word  game. 
Now  began  the  geographical  feature  of  the  exercise. 
On  the  second  round,  each  had  to  state  enough  about  the 
place  he  named  to  show  that  he  knew  what  he  was  talk¬ 
ing  about,  thus  :  Paris,  capital  of  France,  on  Seine 


*See  Riffle  Creek  Papers,  No,  8  of  the  Quarterly. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


47 


river.  Sardinia,  an  island  west  of  Italy.  Antwerp,  a 
city  in  Belgium,  on  the  Scheldt  river,  etc. 

On  the  third  round  the  teacher  pronounced  at  ran¬ 
dom  from  the  list,  the  pupils  responding  as  in  the  second 
round.  Which  side  won  was  determined  from  the  tally- 
sheet  and  announced ;  then  all  wanted  to  try  it  again. 

But  what  were  the  younger  pupils  who  did  not  study 
geography  doing  meanwhile  ?  They  were  listening, 
looking,  eagerly  intent  on  the  outcome,  to  see  which  side 
would  beat.  And  wasn’t  that  a  very  good  way  for  them 
to  spend  a  half  hour  ?  Jenkins  thought  it  was,  and  they 
enjoyed  it. 

A  Remarkable  River. 

The  St.  Lawrence  is  the  only  river  in  the  world  that 
never  has  any  floods.  The  reason  is  not  hard  to  find 
by  one  who  has  learned  to  study  maps  intelligently.  It 
is  two-fold:  First,  the  river  is  fed  from  a  group  of 
lakes,  which  form  by  far  the  largest  reservoir  of  fresh 
water  in  the  world;  the  surface  of  this  reservoir  being 
so  great  that  the  rains  in  summer,  the  melting  of  the 
snow  in  the  spring  and  the  droughts  of  summer  and 
autumn  vary  its  level  but  slightly.  Second,  the  land 
area  drained  into  this  vast  reservoir  is  comparatively 
small,  in  some  places,  notably  along  the  south  shore  of 
Lakes  Erie  and  Superior  and  the  west  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  the  water-parting  is  within  from  six  to  fifty 
miles  of  the  shore.  On  account  of  these  causes  the 


48 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


variation  in  the  height  of  the  St.  Lawrence  produced  by 
drought,  rain  or  melting  snow  is  only  about  a  foot. 
Sometimes,  however,  its  flow  is  affected  more  than  this 
by  wind  and  ice. 

Draw  a  line  around  the  head  waters  of  all  the  tribu- 
utaries  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  another  around  those 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  observe  how  these  basins  com¬ 
pare  in  size  and  shape.  Which  has  the  greater  depth 
of  rainfall  ?  Which  the  greater  total  aggregate  of  rain¬ 
fall  ?  Which  of  these  rivers  discharges  the  greater 
amount  of  water  ?  If  an  inch  of  rain  should  fall  on 
Lake  Michigan  and  the  same  amount  on  an  equal  area 
of  Illinois,  in  which  case  would  the  greater  amount  of 
the  water  be  discharged  into  the  ocean  ?  Is  it  possible 
that  a  smaller  amount  of  rain  (and  snow)  may  fall  in 
the  St.  Lawrence  basin  than  in  the  Mississippi  and  yet 
the  St.  Lawrence  discharge  more  water  into  the  ocean  ? 


Sponge  Fishing. 

There  are  at  present  but  four  centers  of  sponge  sup¬ 
ply  and  distribution  known  to  the  commercial  world, 
and  of  these  the  most  important  is  Key  West.  In  the 
waters  tributary  to  this  port  the  sheeps’-wool,  which 
outranks  all  others  as  a  general  utility  sponge,  attains  a 
perfection  of  form  and  texture  unknown  elsewhere, 
Here  are  to  be  found  any  number  of  sailors,  trained  to 
the  business  from  boyhood.  Thus  the  American  sponge 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


49 


industry,  although  only  about  sixty  years  old,  already 
leads  the  world  in  the  volume  of  its  business,  the  equip¬ 
ment  of  its  vessels,  and  the  intelligence  with  which  it  is 
conducted. 

Arrived  at  what  he  fancies  may  prove  a  profitable 
ground,  the  captain  of  a  sponging  schooner  sends  out  a 
boat  to  investigate,  meantime  standing  off  and  on  until 
a  discovery  is  reported.  Then  all  hands,  save  only  the 
cook,  or,  if  it  is  a  large  vessel,  the  captain  and  cook  tum¬ 
ble  into  the  small  boats  and  the  fishing — if  fishing  it  can 
be  called — is  begun. 

The  vessel  has  towed  astern  just  half  as  many  boats 
as  she  lias  men  in  her  crew,  and  two  men  are  assigned  to 
each  boat.  One  of  them  stands  well  aft  and  sculls  with 
a  long  oar,  while  the  other  bends  low  over  one  of  the 
gunwales,  and  with  his  head  buried  in  a  water-glass 
eagerly  scans  the  bottom  as  he  is  moved  over  it.  The 
water-glass  is  simply  a  wooden  bucket,  having  a  glass 
bottom  that  is  held  an  inch  or  so  below  the  ruffled  sur¬ 
face.  In  these  clear  waters  it  plainly  reveals  all  sub¬ 
merged  objects  to  a  depth  of  forty  or  fifty  feet.  As  a 
further  aid  in  overcoming  ripples  or  moderate  waves, 
each  small  boat  is  provided  with  a  bottle  of  oil  so  hung 
over  the  bow  as  to  slowly  drip  its  contents  into  the  water. 

Through  his  glass  the  observer  sees  darting  fish, 
richly  tinted  sea-fans  and  feathers,  branching  coral, 
gorgeous  anemones,  bristling  sea-porcupines  and  the 
myriad  other  curious  tenants  of  these  tropic  waters. 


50 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


While  seeing  these  he  makes  no  sign,  until  a  small  dark 
object  that,  to  the  untrained  eye,  differs  in  no  respect 
from  the  loggerheads  surrounding  it,  comes  within  his 
range  of  vision.  Then,  without  removing  his  gaze,  he 
reaches  for  the  long-handled  sponge-hook  or  rake  lying 
behind  him,  and  using  it  with  one  hand,  quickly  tears 
from  the  bottom  a  black,  slimy  mass,  that  he  triumph¬ 
antly  pronounces  to  be  a  sheeps’-wool  or  grass  sponge  of 
the  first  quality. 


Where  Is  Our  Parallel  of  Latitude? 

Many  teachers  tell  the  pupils  if  they  face  toward 
the  north  and  raise  the  extended  arms  until  they  are 
horizontal  the  right  hand  will  point  towards  the  east 
and  the  left  hand  will  point  towards  the  west.  Let  us 
see  if  this  is  true. 

Let  us  select  a  point  in  40°  north  latitude  for  our 
point  of  observation.  (See  figure  1.) 

If  a  boy  stands  with  his  face  to¬ 
ward  the  north  and  extends  the 
^  arms  at  right  angle  to  the  body  and 
to  the  meridian,  also,  his  feet  will 
point  toward  the  center  of  the 
earth  as  indicated  by  the  dotted 
line  C  D.  ISTow  if  a  plane  be 
/  passed  through  the  boy’s  feet  at 
right  angles  to  the  meridian  and 
extended  indefinitely,  the  boy’s  hands  and  head  and  also 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


51 


the  center  of  the  earth  will  lie  in  that  plane.  The  plane 
will  also  cut  a  point  in  40°  south  latitude  diametrically 
opposite  the  boy’s  feet. 

We  may  readily  see  from  this  that  if  the  boy  fol¬ 
lowed  the  direction  indicated  by  his  right  hand,  he 
would  be  on  the  equator  when  he  had  gone  only  one- 
quarter  of  the  distance  around  the  earth,  having  gone 
south  40°  instead  of  due  east. 

Any  teacher  may  make  this  very  plain  to  a  seventh 
or  an  eighth  grade  pupil  by  using  an  orange  to  repre¬ 
sent  the  earth  and  proceeding  as  follows  :  Stick  a  pin 
into  the  orange  at  the  stem  end  and  another  pin  at  the 
point  where  the  blossom  dropped  off.  Let  these  two 
pins  represent  the  poles  of  the  earth.  Now  tie  a  thread 
tightly  around  the  orange  midway  between  the  poles 
for  an  equator.  Cut  a  piece  of  paper  as  in  figure  2  and 

draw  two  lines  across  the  paper  at 
;  ;  right  angle  to  each  other  (A  B  and 

:  CD  in  the  figure).  Now  stick  a 

:  •  pin  through  the  point  of  intersee- 

•  I  tion  of  these  two  lines  and  into  the 

•  :  orange  at  any  convenient  point  be- 

'l - — JS  tween  the  equator  and  one  of  the 

. i  f . 

|  !  ft y  z  poles.  Turn  the  paper  around 

;  •  until  the  line  C  D  points  toward 

i  j  the  pole. 

'  ‘  Tie  a  thread  around  the  orange 

at  right  angle  to  the  line  C  D  and 


52 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


slip  it  until  it  coincides  with  the  line  A  B.  This  string 
will  represent  the  plane  of  the  boy’s  hands  or  the  arms 
of  a  guide  post  and  will  be  found  to  cross  the  equator 
at  two  points  one-fourth  of  the  way  around  from  point 
of  starting.  If  we  use  a  guide  post  on  the  surface  of 
the  earth  we  have  the  same  fault.  The  arms  represent¬ 
ing  east  and  west  will  point  too  far 
toward  the  south.  We  may  readily 
remedy  the  fault,  however,  by  tip¬ 
ping  the  post  toward  the  equator 
through  an  angle  just  equal  to  the 
latitude  of  the  foot  of  the  post. 
(Fig.  3.)  This  will  make  the  arm 
indicate  a  line  exactly  parallel  to 
the  equator  at  all  points  and 
consequently  true  east. — Edward  J erry. 


Some  Interesting  Facts  about  Cities. 

No  horses  are  used  in  Venice.  Why  ? 

Most  cities  are  on  large  rivers  or  on  the  sea-coast. 
Why? 

Indianapolis  and  Denver  are  notable  exceptions  to 
the  general  rule,  and  are  the  largest  inland  cities  in  the 
United  States. 

In  New  Orleans,  the  sewerage  runs  not  in  under¬ 
ground  pipes,  but  in  open  gutters  at  the  sides  of  the 
streets,  the  houses  have  no  cellar  basements,  and  in  the 
cemeteries  no  graves  are  dug.  Why  ? 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


53 


Stockholm  is  sometimes  called  the  Venice  of  the 
North;  it  is  built  partly  upon  islands. 

In  Philadelphia  and  Milwaukee  a  larger  proportion 
of  the  people  own  the  houses  they  live  in  than  in  any 
other  of  the  large  American  cities. 

Liverpool  and  London  are  the  heart  of  the  world’s 
commerce.  From  one  of  these  cities  one  may  take  ship 
to  a  greater  number  of  ports  than  from  any  other  city. 
Liverpool  is  the  center  of  the  land  hemisphere. 

Most  of  the  important  cities  of  the  world  lie  between 
the  30th  and  the  60th  degrees  of  north  latitude. 

There  is  at  present  a  striking  and,  as  some  believe, 
an  alarming  disposition  for  population  to  collect  in  large 
cities.  The  increase  of  machinery  encourages  this.  To 
illustrate :  Before  the  twine  binder  was  invented  it  re¬ 
quired  a  force  of  seven  or  eight  men  to  reap  a  field  of 
grain.  Now  one  man  does  the  work  and  the  other  seven 
seek  employment  in  the  city ;  some  of  them  making  the 
machine  which  threw  them  out  of  employment. 

The  government  of  great  cities  is  the  most  difficult 
problem  of  modern  politics. 


The  Hottest  Spot  on  Earth. 

The  hottest  region  on  the  earth’s  surface  is  on  the 
southwestern  coast  of  Persia,  on  the  border  of  the  Per¬ 
sian  gulf.  For  forty  consecutive  days  in  the  months  of 
July  and  August  the  mercury  has  been  known  to  stand 


54 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


above  one  hundred  degrees  in  the  shade  night  and  day, 
and  to  run  up  as  high  as  one  hundred  and  thirty  degrees 
in  the  middle  of  the  afternoon. 

At  Bahrin,  in  the  center  of  the  most  torrid  part  of 
this  most  torrid  belt,  as  though  it  was  nature’s  intention 
to  make  the  place  as  unbearable  as  possible,  water  from 
wells  is  something  unknown. 

Great  shafts  have  been  sunk  to  a  depth  of  one  hun¬ 
dred,  two  hundred,  three  hundred,  and  even  five  hun¬ 
dred  feet,  but  always  with  the  same  result — no  water. 
Notwithstanding  this  serious  drawback  a  comparatively 
numerous  population  contrives  to  live  there,  thanks  to 
copious  springs  which  burst  forth  from  the  bottom  of 
the  gulf  more  than  a  mile  from  the  shore.  The  water 
from  these  springs  is  obtained  in  a  most  curious  and 
novel  manner. 

“Machadoes,”  whose  sole  occupation  is  that  of  fur¬ 
nishing  the  people  of  Bahrin  with  water,  repair  to  that 
portion  of  the  gulf  where  the  springs  are  situated  and 
bring  away  with  them  hundreds  of  skin  bags  full  of 
w7ater  each  day.  The  water  of  the  gulf  where  the  springs 
burst  forth  is  nearly  two  hundred  feet  deep,  but  these 
“maehadores”  (divers)  manage  to  fill  their  goatskin 
sacks  by  diving  to  the  bottom  and  holding  the  mouths  of 
the  bags  over  the  fountain  jets;  this,  too,  without  allow¬ 
ing  the  salt  water  to  mix  with  it. 

The  sourse  of  these  submarine  fountains  is  thought 
to  be  in  the  hills  of  Osmond,  four  or  five  hundred  miles 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


55 


away.  Being  situated  at  the  bottom  of  the  gulf  it  is  a 
mystery  how  they  were  ever  discovered,  but  the  fact  re¬ 
mains  that  they  have  been  known  since  the  dawn  of  his¬ 
tory. 

Mammoth  Cave. 

BY  H.  E.  DANKOLER,  MILWAUKEE,  WIS. 

Of  the  “seven  wonders  of  the  world/5  Mamoth  Gave 
is  the  greatest ;  almost  any  book  of  reference  will  furnish 
a  description  of  it,  but  the  record  and  impressions  of  a 
visitor  there  may  prove  interesting. 

Our  party  arrived  at  Glasgow  Junction,  Ky.,  at  six 
o’clock  in  the  evening,  and  from  there  we  made  a  ride 
of  about  eight  miles  on  a  dummy  line.  Arriving  at  the 
cave,  we  were  hurried  through  supper,  provided  with 
overalls,  then  waited  for  the  ladies,  who  were  slower  in 
getting  on  their  bloomers  (which  all  lady  visitors  wear) 
and  the  guide  gave  each  of  us  an  open  oil  lamp  which 
smoked  and  smelled  bad. 

Two  hundred  feet  from  the  opening  the  passageway 
narrows  to  about  ten  feet  square  and  here  is  a  grated 
gate,  heavily  barred.  This  is  unlocked,  we  pass  through 
the  key  is  again  turned,  and  we  start  on  our  journey. 

Entering  the  grand  rooms,  the  first  emotion  felt  is 
one  of  mute  wonder.  At  every  turn  are  queer  shapes 
and  grotesque  figures;  and  objects  of  the  outer  world 
are  imitated  by  nature  to  such  minuteness  as  to  excite 
our  amazement.  Here  are  fluted  columns  of  stalactite 


56 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


and  stalagmite  formation,  and  the  reflection  of  our  lights 
throws  out  millions  of  sparkling  rays. 

“Josh,  the  Faithful  Guide,”  as  he  is  called,  is  a  jolly 
soul,  and  as  he  leads  the  way  he  explains  the  different 
sights  and  gives  us  the  benefit  of  his  stereotyped  jokes 
and  puns.  He  shows  where  the  miners  worked  for  salt¬ 
peter  to  be  used  in  the  war  of  1812.  The  ground  is  rich 
in  nitre,  and  in  the  now  hard  soil — almost  like  a  rock — 
you  may  see  the  hoof  marks  of  oxen  made  nearly  a  cen¬ 
tury  ago.  There,  also,  are  the  hollowed  trees,  extend¬ 
ing  for  hundreds  of  yards  into  the  cave,  used  for  con¬ 
veying  water  to  the  operatives. 

For  the  first  half  mile  the  ceiling  is  covered  with 
bats,  hanging  by  their  feet,  in  a  dormant  condition. 
After  feeding  for  five  months  outside  they  come  by  mil¬ 
lions  into  the  cave  to  hibernate  for  the  remaining  seven 
months. 

“Do  you  see  the  rock  over  there  that  is  wedged  into 
that  opening?  It  is  called  Suicide  Rock,”  said  the 
guide. 

“Why  ?”  ventured  one  of  us. 

“Because  it  hung  itself.” 

“Here  is  a  wonderful  formation,”  again  resumed 
our  leader.  “You  see  that  stalactite  hanging  down,  and 
below  you  see  the  stalagmite.  To  give  you  an  idea  of 
how  many  years  it  took  to  form,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  that  it  requires  a  thousand  years,  for  one  inch 
to  accumulate  and  you  see  this  is  several  feet  in  dia¬ 
meter.” 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


57 


Soon  the  guide  caught  a  perfectly  white  cricket  and 
explained  to  us  the  difference  between  underground  and 
above-ground  life.  All  animals  below  ground  are  more 
delicate  and  almost  transparent. 

The  subject  turned  to  finding  our  way  out  alone. 
The  guide  said  no  person  living  could  do  so  except  by 
long  practice,  and  that  he  had  gone  with  other  guides 
six  months  before  he  had  ventured  to  take  a  party  in. 
Then  he  related  how  he  once  had  a  civil  engineer  among 
a  party  and  the  engineer  proposed  to  make  a  back  cut 
and  meet  the  party  at  another  level.  The  guide  remon¬ 
strated  with  him,  but  it  was  no  use. 

“I  want  you  to  understand/5  said  the  civil  engineer, 
“that  I  can  go  back  any  road  that  I  have  so  recently 
traveled.  I5m  a  civil  engineer  !” 

The  guide  said  no  more,  and  the  civil  engineer  (and 
a  friend  who  shared  his  confidence)  set  off  to  reach  their 
destination  by  a  different  route.  The  guide  asked  his 
party  to  remain  where  they  were  a  short  time,  so  that  he 
could  follow  the  two  men,  declaring  that  they  would 
soon  be  lost  in  one  of  the  numerous  branches.  Sure 
enough,  the  men  went  wrong  and  the  guide  soon  found 
them,  greatly  frightened,  at  the  sudden  ending  of  one 
of  the  branching  avenues. 

We  came  to  some  stone  houses  and  were  informed 
that  about  forty  years  ago  thirteen  consumptives  thought 
that  owing  to  the  unchanging  temperature  (55  degrees 
the  whole  year)  the  cave  would  be  a  cure  for  their  ills. 


58 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


They  lived  there  five  months,  when  one  of  them  died  ; 
the  others  became  discouraged  and  concluded  to  leave 
and  once  more  see  the  blessed  sunshine.  All  of  them 
are  now  dead,  but  those  who  were  considered  the  lowest 
at  the  beginning  of  their  underground  existence  lived 
the  longest. 

At  another  point  we  came  across  many  piles  of 
stone,  and  the  guide  said  they  had  been  made  by  visitors 
from  different  cities,  states  and  countries.  Each  pile 
was  labeled,  and  the  members  of  our  party  augmented 
the  monuments  representing  their  respective  states^ 
cities,  colleges,  etc. 

At  12:15  o’clock  in  the  morning  we  emerged  from 
the  cave,  having  traveled,  going  and  coming,  about  seven 
miles,  which  completes  the. “short  route,”  over  a  road  as 
“rocky  as  the  road  to  Dublin.” 

At  nine  o’clock  we  are  ready  for  the  long  route, 
which  requires  until  about  six  o’clock  to  complete.  It 
is  in  a  measure  a  repetition  of  the  other,  except  that  you 
have  a  ride  on  Echo  river,  where  the  eyeless  fish  live. 

So  far  the  cave  has  been  explored  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  and  no  one  knows  how  many  miles  more  there 
are. 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  hundreds  of  pencilings  on  the 
walls  around  the  hotel,  made  by  visitors  after  paying 
their  bills  and  while  waiting  for  the  dummy  to  return : 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


59 


Of  all  sad  words  of  tongue  or  pen, 

The  saddest  are  these:  It  might  have  been — 
Considerably  cheaper. 

I  have  an  empty  pocketbook; 

And  yet  my  heart  is  brave, 

For  though  it  took  a  mammoth  pile, 

I’ve  seen  the  Mammoth  Cave. 


Life  Periods  of  Animals. 


YEARS. 

YEARS. 

Bear  . 

. 20 

Monkey  . 

. 16  to  18 

Baboon  . 

. 16 

Nightingale  .... 

.  15 

Beaver  . 

.  50 

Porpoise. . 

. .  30 

Blackbird . 

. 10  to  12 

Parrot  . 

. . .200 

Camel  . 

. 100 

Peacock  . 

.  20 

Cow  . 

. 20 

Pelican . 

Cat  . 

. .  10 

Pigeon  . . 

. 10  to  16 

Carp  . 

. 70  to  150 

Pike  . 

. 30  to  40 

Codfish  . 

......  14  to  17 

Queen  Bee . 

.  4 

Crane  . 

.  24 

Rhinocesos  . 

. .  20 

Crocodile  . 

. 100 

Raven . 

. 200 

Deer  . 

. .  .  20 

Redbreast  . 

. 10  to  12 

Dog  . 

.  10 

Rabbit  . 

.  7 

Drone  . 

Sheep  . 

. .  10 

Elephant  . 

. 100 

Squirrel  ........ 

.  7 

Eagle  . 

. 100 

Swine  . 

.  20 

Eel  . 

. .  10 

Salmon  . 

.  16 

Fox  . . . : . 

.  15 

Skylark  . . . .  . 

. 10  to  30 

Goose  . 

.  80 

Stag . 

Goldfinch . 

. 20  to  24 

Starling  . 

_ 10  to  12 

Horse  . 

.  30 

Swan  . 

. 200 

Hare . 

.  8 

Tiger,  Leopard  . . 

Hawk . 

. 30  to  40 

Titlark . 

. 5  to  6 

Hen  . 

. 10 

Tortoise  . . 

. . . 100  to  200 

Hyena . 

Working  Bee  . . . . 

....  6  months 

Lion  . 

. 25  to  70 

Whale  . 

. 100 

Llama  . 

_ _ _ _  15 

Wolf  . 

.  20 

60 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


Through  the  Earth,  not  Around  It. 

Circles  should  be  thought  of  as  passing  not  around 
the  earth  but  through  it.  These  diagrams,  reproduced 
on  the  board,  will  help  to  this  conception : 


w 


Observe  that  in  figure  I  the  point  of  view  is  directly 
i  n  the  plane  of  the  prime  meridian,  hence  that  circle  ap¬ 
pears  as  a  straight  line ;  in  figure  II  it  is  in  the  plane  of 
the  equator. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


61 


Shortest  Route  Around  the  World. 

New  York  to  Queenstown,  Queenstown  via  Cork,  a 
fast  transport  across  to  Holyhead,  and  the  “Wild  Irish¬ 
man  to  London ;  London  via  the  Dover  and  Calais  route 
to  Paris;  Paris  to  Brindisi,  Italy;  Brindisi  by  steamer 
to  Alexandria ;  Alexandria  by  rail  to  Cairo,  and  thence 
to  Suez,  overtaking  the  steamer  at  the  latter  place ;  from 
Suez  to  Bombay  by  steamer ;  Bombay  to  Madras  by  rail ; 
Madras  by  steamer  to  Halle,  Singapore,  Hong  Kong  and 
Shanghai  to  Yokohoma;  Yokohoma  to  San  Francisco; 
San  Francisco  to  New  York.  Making  all  connections 
without  loss  of  time,  this  trip  can  be  made  in  about  ten 
weeks  or  less. 


Slope  of  Hirers. 

The  slope  of  rivers  flowing  into  the  Mississippi  from 
the  east  is  on  the  average  about  three  inches  to  the  mile. 
Those  entering  it  from  the  west  have  an  average  descent 
of  about  six  inches  to  the  mile.  The  average  fall  per 
mile  of  the  Missouri  after  it  leaves  the  mountains  is 
about  a  foot;  the  Des  Moines  from  its  source  to  its 
mouth  7.3  inches.  The  entire  length  of  the  Ohio  shows 
a  fall  of  about  five  inches  per  mile.  The  Mississippi 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  to  the  gulf  has  a  fall  of  but 
2|  inches  to  the  mile. 


Naries  of  the  Great  Nations. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


63 


A  Few  Things  in  Which  South  America  Excels. 

1.  It  has  the  densest  and  most  extensive  forests  in 
the  world. 

2.  It  is  richer  in  birds  and  insects  than  any  other 
continent. 

3.  It  has  the  largest  river  in  the  world. 

4.  It  has  the  fiercest  volcano  in  the  world. 

5.  It  has  the  loftiest  mountain  in  the  western  hem¬ 
isphere. 

6.  It  has  more  volcanoes  than  any  other  continent. 

7.  It  has  a  volcano  which  has  the  deepest  crater  in 
the  world. 

8.  It  has  more  wild  cattle  and  horses  than  any  other 
continent. 

9.  It  has  the  highest  lake  of  any  considerable  size 
in  the  world. 

10.  It  produces  more  coffee  than  any  other  con¬ 
tinent. 

11.  It  has  the  loftiest  volcano  in  the  world. 

12.  It  is  probably  the  richest  mineral  region  in  the 
world. 

Wettest  and  Driest  Regions. 

The  neighborhood  of  Oherrapunji,  just  northeast  of 
Calcutta,  in  India,  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  rain¬ 
iest  district  on  the  globe.  The  mean  annual  rainfall 
there  is  about  490  inches  or  about  twelve  times  what  we 
have  in  the  United  States.  In  the  year  of  1861  it  was 
905  inches.  In  a  single  month  as  much  as  145  inches 


64 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


of  rain  have  fallen.  For  the  first  five  and  a  half  months 
of  1899  the  fall  was  extraordinary,  the  precipitation  in 
a  single  day  being  over  70  inches,  or  twice  what  we  have 
in  this  country  during  an  entire  year. 

The  driest  region,  according  to  Prof.  Fairchild,  an 
English  authority,  is  on  the  coast  of  Peru,  about  350 
miles  south  of  the  equator.  In  February,  1899,  they 
had  there  a  drizzle  lasting  several  hours,  which  was  the 
first  rain  they  had  had  in  eight  years.  This  slight  rain 
brought  to  life  the  seeds  of  a  number  of  annual  plants 
which  had  lain  dormant  in  the  soil  for  that  interval. 
Only  one  plant  stands  the  long  drouths  there — the  col¬ 
ored  Peruvian  cotton  plant.  In  the  United  States,  Al¬ 
buquerque,  ST.  M.,  claims  the  distinction  of  being  the 
sunniest  place,  though  the  way  the  weather  bureau  puts 
it  is  that  it  is  the  place  of  the  least  rainfall.  There  have 
been  but  two  totally  cloudy  days  at  that  point  in  three 
years. 

Nassau’s  Big  Tree. 

In  Nassau,  the  capital  city  of  the  Bahama  Islands, 
they  say  “the  tree  in  the  public  square” — not  the  trees. 
Now,  the  public  square  of  Nassau  is  quite  as  large  as 
that  of  most  cities  of  its  size,  but  there  is  only  one  tree 
in  it,  and  that  tree  literally  fills  the  square  and  spreads 
its  shade  over  all  the  public  buildings  in  the  neighbor¬ 
hood.  For  it  is  the  largest  tree  in  the  world  at  its  base, 
although  it  is  hardly  taller  than  a  three-story  house.  It 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


65 


is  variously  known  as  a  ceiba,  or  a  silk  cotton  tree,  but 
the  people  of  the  low  islands  of  the  West  Indies  call  it 
the  hurricane  tree.  For  no  matter  how  hard  the  wind 
blows  it  cannot  disturb  the  mighty,  buttressed  trunk  of 
the  ceiba. 

In  the  great  hurricane  of  1899  all  the  palms  and 
many  of  the  other  trees  of  Nassau  were  overturned,  but 
the  great  hurricane  tree,  though  it  lost  all  its  leaves,  did 
not  lose  so  much  as  a  branch.  Its  trunk  throws  out 
great  curving,  wand-like  braces,  some  of  them  twenty 
feet  wide  and  nearly  as  high.  These  extend  into  the 
ground  on  all  sides  and  brace  the  tree  against  all  attack, 
while  the  great  branches  spread  a  thick  shade  overhead. 
In  the  tropic  sunshine  of  mid-summer,  hundreds,  even 
thousands,  of  people,  may  gather  in  the  cool  of  its 
shadow.  No  one  knows  how  old  the  great  tree  is,  but 
it  must  have  been  growing  hundreds,  if  not  thousands 
of  years.  A  very  old  picture  in  the  library  at  Nassau 
shows  the  tree  as  big  as  it  is  at  present,  and  even  the 
oldest  negro  in  the  island  cannot  remember  when  it  was 
a  bit  smaller. — Pathfinder. 


Steam  Navagation  of  African  Rivers. 

Much  additional  information  has  recently  been 
brought  to  the  surface  regarding  Africa  through  the  op¬ 
portunities  which  are  now  afforded  for  access  to  the  in¬ 
terior.  Physically  the  African  continent  is  in  many 


66 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


respects  unique.  Five  thousand  miles  in  extreme 
length,  and  over  4,000  in  breadth,  its  area  is  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  continent  except  Asia,  the  latest 
estimates  being  11,874,000  square  miles.  Its  coast  for¬ 
mation  is  peculiar  in  the  absence  of  deep  indentations, 
bays  or  harbors,  and  the  small  number  of  waterways 
which  offer  entrance  to  the  interior.  The  fact  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  interior  is  an  elevated  table  land  ex¬ 
tending  on  all  sides  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
coast  renders  access  to  the  interior  by  the  few  large 
streams  difficult.  At  the  point  where  the  rivers  pass 
from  the  elevated  plateau  of  the  coast  the  falls  or  rapids 
which  there  exist  prevent  navigation,  and  as  a  result 
travel  to  the  interior  of  Africa  by  water  developed  more 
slowly  than  in  any  other  continent.  Indeed,  it  was  not 
until  the  explorations  of  Livingston,  Stanley,  Speke,  and 
others  developed  the  true  conditions  and  made  known 
the  fact  that  vast  navigable  water-stretches  were  to  be 
found  in  the  interior  that  it  occurred  to  man  to  trans¬ 
port  steam  vessels  around  those  falls  and  put  them  afloat 
in  the  waterways  of  the  interior.  When  these  condi¬ 
tions  were  clearly  established,  however,  modern  ingenu¬ 
ity  and  energy  soon  found  a  means  of  transporting 
steamers  in  small  pieces  upon  the  backs  of  men  through 
the  forests,  around  the  falls  and  rapids  for  scores  and 
even  hundreds  of  miles,  and  putting  them  together,  set 
afloat  the  steamers  which  penetrate  thousands  of  miles 
into  the  interior  and  develop  facts  never  before  known, 
and  which  could  not  have  been  developed  by  land  explor¬ 
ation  in  tropical  climates  and  jungles  for  many  genera¬ 
tions. 


in  tms  group  are  to  oe  round  the  outlines  or  the  maps  of  three  continents,  four  countries,  a  penin¬ 
sula,  a  large  bay,  and  one  of  the  United  States.  Hold  the  page  in  each  case  so  that  the  arrow  will  point 
up;  keep  your  eye  on  the  outline,  disregarding  the  interior  lines  of  the  picture,  and  the  map  forms  will 
come  into  view. 


IN  GEOGBAPHY 


67 


68 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


Tobacco  Under  Tents, 

Tobacco  raisers  in  Florida  have  long  observed  that 
wherever  the  weed  was  grown  mostly  in  the  shade,  it  at¬ 
tained  an  unusually  great  growth.  Recently  a,  New 
York  company  in  Florida,  acting  upon  this  principle, 
erected  an  arbor  over  an  acre  of  land  and  there  planted 
Sumatra  tobacco  seed.  The  result  was  astonishing,  as 
the  tobacco  is  described  as  having  grown  higher  than  the 
head  of  a,  man  on  horseback,  the  like  of  which  has  never 
been  known  in  Sumatra.  As  a  result  of  this,  hundreds 
of  acres  are  being  grown  under  cover,  and  it  has  been 
demonstrated  that  tents  like  those  used  by  circuses,  with 
openings  for  a  little  sunshine,  produce  the  best  crops. 


A  Review  Test. 

Teachers  often  send  pupils  to  the  board  to  make  lists 
of  rivers,  cities,  capes,  etc,,  to  be  found  in  the  review 
work.  The  pupil  will  make  up  a  creditable  column  of 
neatly  written  names,  take  his  seat  and  receive  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  his  teacher,  and  all  seems  well.  If  this  were 
all  that  is  intended,  the  result  would  be  commendable. 
But  is  it  ?  Is  it  not  possible  that  the  pupil  may  have 
simply  memorized  the  names ,  and  knows  nothing  of  the 
facts  to  be  learned  from  such  a  list.  Let  us  apply  an 
eye  test. 

Suppose  the  class  to  be  standing  facing  the  teacher 
with  backs  to  the  board.  He  says  No.  1  may  make  a 
list  of  the  cities  and  products  of  Maine;  No.  2,  of  Massa- 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


69 


chusetts ;  No.  3,  eight  rivers  of  New  England ;  No.  4. 
cities  and  products  of  Pennsylvania.  The  class  turns, 
and  in  a  minute  have  written  the  lists  required. 

The  teacher  says,  “Place  an  arrow  at  the  right  of 
each  name  to  show  the  location  of  each  object.  (In  the 
case  of  a  river  the  arrow  will  indicate  the  direction  of  its 
course.)  To  illustrate :  A  review  of  the  map  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania  might  appear  thus : 


Pittsburg,  < - 

I 

Gettysburg, 


Harrisburg, 

Philadelphia, 

Petroleum, 

Hard  coal,  ^ 

Susquehanna  River, 


V 

To  show  the  position  more  exactly  a  mark  may  be 
drawn  across  the  shaft  of  the  arrow.  Thus,  in  the  case 
of  Pittsburg  the  mark  would  cross  the  shaft  near  the 
west  end,  but  in  the  case  of  Harrisburg  a  little  to  the 
right  of  the  middle. 

This  simple  test  tells  at  a  glance  whether  the  pupil 
knows  the  location  of  a  place  or  not.  This  is  not  enough ; 
as  yet  the  teacher  cannot  tell  whether  the  pupil  has  asso- 


70 


SUPPLEMENTABY  LESSONS 


dated  a  fact  with  the  place  studied  or  not.  Suppose  a 
pupil  has  written  this  list : 


[  Concord  (Granite) 

XT  TT  ,  .  !  Portsmouth  (Seaport) 

New  Hampshire.  < 

i  Manchester  (Metropolis) 

[^Nashua  (Manufacture.) 

Require  a  “catch-word”  as  a  test  of  knowledge  of 
facts.  The  words  in  curves  may  indicate  that  the  pupil 
remembers  some  important  fact.  If  the  teacher  is  in 
doubt  about  this  he  should  question. 


Output  of  Rivers. 

Harper’s  Young  People  gives  the  following  table  of 
the  hourly  quantity  of  water  discharged  into  the  sea,  by 
some  of  the  best  known  rivers.  This  table  was  compiled 


by  an  expert. 


Rivers. 

Million  Cubic 
feet  per  hour. 

Rivers. 

Million  Cubic 
feet  per  hour. 

Amazon  . . 

.  3,700 

Nile  . 

.  560 

La  Plata  . 

.  3,100 

Phine  . 

.  230 

Mississippi  . . . . 

.  2,070 

Elbe  . 

.  100 

Volga  . 

.  1,120 

Seine  . 

.  80 

Danube  . 

.  960 

Thames  . 

.  40  ” 

Ganges  . . . 

.  700 

A  Lesson  in  Geography  and  Language. 

The  third  grade  geography  class  were  asked  to  think 
of  the  food  on  the  home  table  and  to  ask  their  mothers 
about  the  groceries.  Many  things  were  brought  in  to 
add  to  our  school  collection  of  grains  and  groceries. 

Coffee,  tea,  chocolate,  spices,  dates  and  other  foreign 
products  were  mentioned  and  the  countries  in  which  they 
were  raised  pointed  out  on  the  maps. 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


Chocolate  was  made  a  subject  of  special  study  for  a 
few  days.  All  the  information  available  concerning  it 
was  gathered  from  books  at  school  and  at  home.  As 
this  information  was  reported  from  day  to  day,  it  was 
made  the  subject  of  conversation  in  the  class,  and  some 
pictures  to  illustrate  the  facts  were  used.  So  much  for 
the  geography.  Then  came  the  test  not  only  of  the  mat¬ 
ter  learned,  but  of  the  power  to  express  it ;  and  “Choco¬ 
late”  was  a  “subject  for  a  composition.”  The  following 
outline  was  written  on  the  board  as  a  guide  in  the  ar- 


rangement  of  what  they  were  to  write : 

CHOCALATE. 

1. 

What  it  is. 

2. 

Where  it  grows. 

3. 

The  chocolate  tree. 

Bark.  Flower's. 

Leaves.  Fruit.  Seeds. 

4. 

Cultivation. 

The  chocolate  farm. 

Care  of  the  plants. 

5. 

Gathering  the  fruit. 

Seeding. 

6. 

7. 

Drying. 

8. 

Packing. 

9. 

To  what  countries  sent. 

10. 

Preparation  for  use. 

Boasting. 

Grinding. 

Making  into  cakes. 

The  following  description,  written  by  a  pupil,  indi- 

cates  the  results  of  this  kind  of  work : 


72 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


THE  COCOA  PLANT. 

“The  best  cocoa  grows  in  Mexico.  The  Indians  who  are  very 
lazy  eat  the  pulp  and  throw  away  the  seeds.  Chocolate  is  a  fruit 
which  grows  on  a  tree.  The  chocolate  has  reddish  brown  bark, 
its  leaves  are  long  and  pointed.  The  flowers  are  pink,  the  fruit 
is  oval  and  pointed.  If  a  man  wishes  to  become  rich  he  plants 
cocoa  trees.  To  shade  the  trees  he  plants  banana  trees  around 
them.  It  takes  about  two  years  for  them  to  grow.  When  the 
fruit  is  ripe  negroes  come  with  forked  sticks  and  pick  it.  Then 
more  negroes  come  and  carry  it  to  a  barn  where  there  are  old 
negroes  who  take  out  the  seeds  with  wooden  spoons.  Then  the 
seeds  are  put  in  a  hole  and  covered  with  sand.  The  seeds  are 
then  taken  and  put  in  bags  made  of  buffalo  hides.  The  seeds 
are  then  sent  to  the  United  States  and  Europe.  When  the  seeds 
arrive  at  these  places  they  are  taken  and  roasted,  then  crushed 
between  rollers.  They  are  then  mixed  with  a  little  water  and 
spices  and  pressed  into  cakes.” 


Temperature  of  the  Deep  Sea. 

The  steamer  Albatross,  of  the  United  States,  Fish 
Commission,  after  a  cruise  of  fourteen  months  in  the 
Pacific  recently  returned  to  San  Francisco.  The  expe¬ 
dition  made  some  important  discoveries.  It  was  found 
that  with  the  exception  of  the  Fiji  Islands  and  Tahiti 
the  islands  of  the  South  Pacific  are  inaccurately  located 
on  our  present  maps  and  charts,  most  of  them  being 
placed  from  two  to  twelve  miles  out  of  their  true  posi¬ 
tion. 

The  party  discovered  that  at  all  depths  below  five 
hundred  fathoms  the  temperature  is  uniform,  being 
thirty-five  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The  Albatross  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  dragging  the  bottom  of  the  sea  at  a  depth  of 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


73 


4,200  fathoms  j  thus  breaking  the  record  for  deep  sea 
dredging.  Heretofore  the  greatest  depth  reached  was 
3,000  fathoms;  that  was  in  1876,  by  the  British  ship 
Challenger. 


Population  of 

the  United 

Alabama  . 

. ..  1,828,697 

Arkansas  . 

.  ..  1,311,564 

California  . 

.  ..  1,485,053 

Colorado  . 

.  .  .  539,700 

Connecticut  . 

...  908,355 

Delaware  . 

. .  .  184,735 

Florida  . 

...  528,542 

Georgia  . 

.  ..  2,216,329 

Idaho  . 

. . .  161,771 

Illinois  . . 

. ..  4,821,550 

Indiana  . . 

. ..  2,516,463 

Iowa . 

.  ..  2,251,829 

Kansas  . 

. ..  1,469,496 

Kentucky  . 

. ..  2,147,174 

Louisiana  . 

. ..  1,381,627 

Maine  . . 

.  . .  694,366 

Maryland  . 

. .  .  1,189,946 

Massachusetts  . . . 

...  2,805,346 

Michigan  . 

.  .  .  2,419,782 

Minnesota  . 

...  1,751,395 

Mississippi  . 

.  ..  1,551,372 

Missouri  . 

...  3,107,117 

Montana  . . 

.  ...  243,289 

Nebraska  . 

...  1,068,901 

Nevada  . 

42,334 

New  Hampshire  . 

...  411,588 

New  Jersey  .... 

.  ...  1,883,669 

New  York . 

...  7,268,009 

North  Carolina  .. 

...  1,891,992 

States  and  Large  Cities, 


North  Dakota .  319,040 

Ohio  .  4,157,545 

Oregon  .  413,532 

Pennsylvania  .  6,301,365 

Rhode  Island  .  428,556 

South  Carolina .  1,340,312 

South  Dakota .  401,559 

Tennessee  .  2,022,723 

Texas  .  3,048,828 

Utah  .  276,565 

Vermont  . .  343,641 

Virginia  .  1,854,184 

Washington  . 517,672 

West  Virginia  .  958,900 

Wisconsin  .  2,068,963 

Wyoming  .  92,531 


Total  . 74,627,907 

TERRITORIES,  ETC. 

Alaska  (estimated)  .  44,000 

Arizona  .  122,212 

District  of  Columbia  278,718 

Hawaii  .  154,001 

Indian  Territory  . . .  391,960 

New  Mexico  .  193,777 

Oklahoma  .  398,245 

Abroad  in  service. . .  84,400 


Total . .  1,667,313 

Grand  total.  United  States,  territories,  etc . 76,295,220 


74 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


Chicago  .  1,698,575 

Philadelphia  .  1,293,697 

St.  Louis  .  575,238 

Boston  .  560,892 

Baltimore . .  508,957 

Cleveland .  381,768 

Buffalo  .  352,219 

San  Francisco .  342,782 

Cincinnati  . .  .  ...  325,902 

Pittsburg .  321,616 

New  Orleans  .  287,104 

Detroit  .  285,704 

Milwaukee .  285,315 

Washington .  278,718 

Newark . 246,070 

Jersey  City  .  206,433 

Louisville .  204,731 

Minneapolis .  202,718 


175,597 
169,164 
163,632 
163,572 
162,465 
133,859 
131,822 
129,896 
125,560 
118,421 
108,374 
108,027 
105,171 
104,836 
102,979 
102,555 
102,479 

Memphis .  102,320 

Scranton  .  102,026 


AMERICAN  CITIES  OF  OVER  100,000. 

Greater  New  York. .  3,437,202  Providence  _ 

Indianapolis  . . 

St.  Paul  . 

Kansas  City  . , 
Rochester  .... 

Denver . . 

Toledo . 

Allegheny  City 
Columbus  .... 
Worcester  .... 
Syracuse  ..... 
New  Haven  . . 

Paterson _ 

Fall  River  . . . 
St.  Joseph  . . . 

Omaha . 

Los  Angeles  . . 


Thirty  Cities  of  oyer  half  a  Million. 

Population. 


London,  1898  . 

New  York,  1900.... 

Paris,  1896  . 

Canton  ( estimated ) 

Chicago,  1900 . 

Berlin,  1895  . 

Vienna,  1890  . 

Tokio,  1896  . 

Philadelphia,  1900 . .  . 
St.  Petersburg,  1897 

Moscow,  1897  . 

Tientsin  (estimated) 
Pekin  ( estimated )  . 
Constantinople,  1885 


4,504,766 
3,437,202 
2,536,834 
2,500,000 
1,698,575 
1,677,304 
1,364,548 
1,299,941 
1,293,697 
,1,267,023 
988,614 
,  950,000 
900,000 
,  873,565 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


75 


Calcutta,  1891  .  861,764 

Bombay,  1891  .  821,764 

Buenos  Ayres,  1898 .  753,000 

Glasgow,  1898  .  724,349 

Bangkok,  1898  (estimated) .  700,000 

Warsaw,  1897  . ' .  638,209 

Liverpool,  1898  .  633,645 

Hamburg,  1895  . 625,552 

St.  Louis,  1900 .  575,238 

Cairo,  1897  . 570,062 

Boston,  1900 .  560,892 

Brussels,  1897  .  551,011 

Manchester  (estimated)  .  539,000 

Naples  (estimated)  .  536,000 

Rio  Janeiro  (estimated) .  522,000 

Baltimore,  1900 .  508,957 


A  Shifting  Divide. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  great  drainage 
canal  at  Chicago,  which  has  made  the  Chicago  river 
turn  round  and  flow  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  via  the 
Desplaines  and  Illinois  rivers,  there  has  risen  a  neat 
little  point  on  the  migration  of  divides.  One  who  now 
attempts  to  draw  the  divide  limiting  the  basin  of  the 
Mississippi  river  on  the  east,  must  make  a  wide  detour 
out  into  Lake  Michigan,  circling  around  a  fan  shaped 
area  of  uncertain  radius,  focusing  on  the  former  mouth 
of  the  Chicago  river.  For  what  was  once  the  mouth 
of  the  river  has  now  become  the  outlet  of  the  lake,  and 
it  is  a  sight  one  may  witness  with  a  thrill,  to  watch  the 
earnest  gulfward  flow  of  the  river,  which  has  been  so 
long  a  vile  and  stagnant  pool.  For  there  is  now  a  very 


76 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


marked  current,  and  a  strong  protest  goes  up  from  the 
pilots  and  barge  men,  who  have  never  before  had  a  cur¬ 
rent  to  contend  with.  Several  times  already  a  long 
freight  boat  has  drifted  round  in  the  current  and  lodged 
crosswise  in  the  narrow  stream.  Then  the  great  bear- 
trap  dam  at  Lockport  must  be  closed  up,  and  the  flow 
stopped  before  the  boat  may  be  extricated. 

It  will  be  a  long  time,  it  may  be  years,  before  the 
filthy  river  will  have  become  a  healthy  stream,  and  be¬ 
fore  the  water  of  the  lake  will  have  become  freed  from 
the  filth  the  sewers  have  been  carrying  into  it  so  long, 
so  that  it  will  be  beyond  reproach  for  household  use. 
And  all  the  while  the  water  which  is  going  over  the 
Lockport  dam  is  furnishing  30,000  horsepower  of 
energy  to  add  to  the  manufacturing  advantages  of  the 
great  city. — Bulletin  American  Bureau  of  Geog. 


Easter  Island. 

In  the  South  Pacific  ocean,  is  an  island  belonging  to 
the  Polynesian  Archipelago,  about  thirty  miles  in  cir¬ 
cumference,  and  which  at  its  highest  point  is  twelve 
hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  This  is  Easter 
Island,  formerly  called  Davis’sLand,  and  has  two  thou¬ 
sand  inhabitants,  who,  like  all  other  South  sea  islanders, 
are  dark  skinned.  It  appears  to  have  been  of  volcanic 
origin,  but  the  greater  point  of  interest  about  it,  is,  not 
its  people  with  their  habits  and  manners,  but  the  won¬ 
derful  ruins  which  are  found  there.  These  consist  of 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


17 


temples,  with  statues  twelve  and  fifteen  feet  high,  some 
of  them  in  rows  standing  on  wide  platforms  of  solid 
masonry.  The  inhabitants  of  the  island  know  nothing 
at  all  of  these  ruins,  or  those  who  built  them. 

Therefore,  like  many  others,  they  may  date  cen¬ 
turies  back,  and  perhaps  are  prehistoric.  They  evi¬ 
dently  are  the  work  of  a  race,  that  has  passed  away,  and 
about  which  we  can  only  conjecture.  Who  these  people 
were,  what  they  believed,  and  what  they  did,  are  ques¬ 
tions  that,  like  many  others,  remain  unanswered. — 
Goldthwaite’s  Magazine. 


Heavy  Rainfall. 

In  May,  1890,  at  McCausland,  Iowa,  3.94  inches  of 
rain  fell  in  one  hour;  in  June,  1871,  there  fell  at  Gal¬ 
veston,  Texas,  3.95  inches  in  fourteen  minutes.  The 
record  for  St.  Louis  shows  one  rainfall  of  5.05  inches 
in  fifty  minutes.  At  Triadelphia,  West  Virginia,  a 
few  years  ago,  seven  inches  fell  in  fifty-four  minutes, 
and  at  Alexandria,  Louisiana,  21.4  inches  in  twenty- 
three  hours. 


A  Strontian  Cave. 

Put-in-Bay  Island  is  one  of  a  group  in  Lake  Erie, 
midway  between  Detroit  and  Cleveland.  It  abounds 
in  minerals.  It  is  chiefly  underlaid  with  limestone,  in 
which  are  many  small  caves.  In  these  caves  the  water 
of  the  lake  forms  numerous  clear  pools.  Gustave  Hei- 
nemann  bought  a  portion  of  this  island,  including  a 


78 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


well  which  had  been  drilled  to  the  level  of  the  lake,  and 
a  bed  of  strontianite,  partially  worked.  On  examining 
this  well,  Mr.  Heinemann  determined  to  enlarge  it,  and 
in  doing  so  broke  into  a  wonderful  circular  cavern, 
walled  and  overhung  with  great  blue-white  crystals  of 
the  rare  mineral.  He  has  now  fitted  this  grotto  and 
the  passages  leading  to  it  with  electric  lights,  so  that  it 
glitters  and  sparkles  like  a  fairy  palace.  It  is  believed 
that  other  caves  are  awaiting  discovery  here,  and  the 
whole  region  invites  the  exploration  of  scientific  men. 
— Pathfinder. 


Out-door  Geography. 

Did  you  ever  see  children  playing  in  the  soft  ground 
after  a  summer  shower  making  mud  islands  ?  How  de¬ 
lightfully  they  were  employed  in  making  the  world  over 
again!  After  islands,  the  merest  suggestion  will  set 
them  to  making  other  natural  divisions  of  land. 

Their  attention  may  be  drawn  also  to  the  water 
which  everywhere  surrounds  and  indents  the  land.  They 
have  now  learned  the  alphabet  of  geography.  Let  them 
form  the  land  masses  as  they  are  arranged  on  a  map  of 
the  hemisphere,  by  filling  in  part  of  a  shallow  pond  with 
loose  earth  or  sand. 

They  may  further  extend  their  work  by  strewing 
pebbles  in  ridges  to  represent  mountain  ranges,  and  raise 
or  depress  the  surface  to  conform  to  the  more  marked 
general  features  of  the  land.  Cities  may  be  represented 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


79 


by  clusters  of  small  cubes  or  blocks,  the  different  races 
of  men  by  small  stakes  or  images  of  the  prevailing  color 
in  the  respective  countries,  the  wheat  fields  by  heads  of 
wheat;  and  samples  of  cotton,  tea,  coal,  coffee,  oranges, 
etc.,  may  be  used  to  indicate  where  each  of  these  is  pro¬ 
duced  or  found. 

Play  may  thus  become  deeply  instructive.  The 
child’s  idea  of  the  world  is  more  tangible.  The  na¬ 
tional  flag,  in  its  true  shape  and  colors,  may  be  raised 
over  each  country.  This  line  of  work  (or  play)  may  be 
carried  to  any  desirable  extent.  The  teacher  whose 
school  is  near  a  shallow  pond — and  many  of  them  are  in 
the  spring  time — may  by  a  little  ingenuity  direct  the 
out-door  play  as  suggested  above,  so  as  to  enhance  great¬ 
ly  the  interest  in  geography. — Lewis  Ostenson. 

[The  skilful  teacher  who  “knows  when  to  stop,”  can  utilize 
the  children’s  plays  in  this  way  to  advantage.  Some  caution, 
however,  is  necessary.  The  chief  caution  to  be  observed  in  doing 
work  of  this  kind  is  that  the  child  is  likely  to  get  a  very  errone¬ 
ous  notion  of  the  comparative  size  of  things.  But  the  wise 
teacher  will  find  ways  to  overcome  this  difficulty. — Editor.] 


Physical  Geography  and  Arithmetic. 

The  class  was  composed  chiefly  of  big  boys  to  whom 
arithmetic  was  the  synonym  of  all  that  is  valuable  in 
scholarship.  The  principal  tried  to  teach  them  physical 
geography  and  natural  philosophy,  but  they  liked  arith¬ 
metic  better.  The  season  was  dry,  and  the  crops  were 


80 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


needing  rain.  One  morning  he  said  to  the  class,  “Mr. 
Brown  said  to  me  yesterday  that  if  he  owned  the  rail¬ 
road  which  runs  past  his  farm  he  would  saturate  his 
quarter  section  with  water  from  Lake  Michigan.  How 
long  a  train  would  he  required  to  draw  the  water  which 
falls  on  a  quarter  section  in  a  year  ?”  This  was  arith¬ 
metic.  But  a  few  factors  of  the  problem  were  lacking. 
The  first  was  the  depth  of  the  annual  rainfall.  That 
was  physical  geography.  They  found  it  to  be  about  30 
inches.  The  solution  of  the  problem  began  thus  : 

160  x  160  No.  of  sq.  rds.  in  farm. 

160x160x33x33 

- - — -  ==  sq.  ft.  in  farm. 

2x2 

160  x  160  x  33  x  33  x  5 _ _  cu>  ft,  of  water  in  an- 

2  x  2  x  2  nual  rainfall  on  farm. 

Here  was  another  missing  factor,  the  weight  of  a 
cubic  foot  of  water.  The  text-book  on  physics  was  con¬ 
sulted  and  the  work  proceeded. 

160  x  160  x  33  x  33  x  5  x  125  lbs.  of  water  in 
2x2x2x  2  annual  rainfall 

What  next  ?  The  capacity  and  length  of  a  freight 
car.  This  was  a  matter  for  practical  observation.  The 
next  day  they  continued : 

160  x  160  x  33  x  33  x  5  x  125 _  No.  of  cars 

2  x  2  x  2  x  2  x  33000  =  required. 

160  x  160  x  33  x  33  x  5  x  125  x  36 _ Length  of  train 

2  x  2  x  2  x  2  x  33000  ^  in  feet- 

160  x  160  x  33  x  33  x  5  x  125  x  36  _  Length  in 

”  2  x  2  x  2  x  2  x  33000  x  5280  ^ 


IN  GEOGKAPHY 


81 


Canceling  eqnal  factors  from  the  above  they  found 
that  the  train  would  be  234  miles  long,  making  a  fair  al¬ 
lowance  for  engines  and  tenders.  So  great  a  work  is  it 
to  water  a  quarter  section  during  one  year !  But  they 
went  on : 

234 x  4  =  Miles  of  train  to  water  a  section. 

234  x  4  x  55000  =  Miles  of  train  to  water  Wisconsin  for  one  year. 

234  x  4  x  55000  _ No.  Gf  hours  to  pass  a  point 

20  at  speed  of  through  freight. 

234x4x55000 

- - - — - =  Days  to  pass  a  point. 

234  x  4  x  55000  __  Years  to  pass  a  point  count- 
20  x  10  x  306  mg  Sundays  and  holidays. 

That  is,  if  the  train  had  started  when  America  was 
discovered  and  had  run  200  miles  during  every  working 
day  since,  not  quite  half  of  it  would  yet  have  passed  a 
given  point.  And  all  this  immense  amount  of  power 
to  move  horizontally  the  water  which  falls  on  Wiscon¬ 
sin  in  one  year !  How  inconceivably  great  then  is  the 
force  which  lifts  this  great  quantity  of  water  into  the  air 
and  carries  it  over  the  continent.  The  combined  force 
of  all  the  machines  which  men  have  made  would  not 
equal  that  represented  in  the  rainfall  of  one  day  when 
the  weather  bureau  reports  general  rain  throughout  the 
country.  To  produce  even  a  light  summer  shower, 
tremendous  energy  is  expended. 


82 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


How  to  Make  Fewer  Classes  in  Geography. 

Combine  them.  Arithmetic  is  a  ladder  whose  first 
rounds  must  be  climbed  before  reaching  the  others.  But 
geography  is  not  so.  There  is  no  necessary  order  in 
which  it  must  be  studied.  In  a  country  school  there 
need  never  be  more  than  one  class  using  the  second  book 
or  common  school  geography.  Suppose  one  class  studied 
last  year  the  larger  book  of  any  too,  book  series,  and 
got  half  through.  Another  class  studied  the  first  book 
and  now  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  are  about  to  start 
in  the  upper  book.  Put  the  two  classes  together  on  the 
last  half  of  the  booh .  A  pupil  who  is  ready  to  learn 
about  New  York,  St.  Louis  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  is 
prepared  to  learn  about  Liverpool,  Rome  and  the  Alps. 
The  following  year  the  advanced  portion  of  the  class 
will  be  through  with  the  subject;  the  others  will  work 
with  the  new  comers  from  the  lower  class  and  will  take 
the  first  half  of  the  second  book. 


A  New  Variety  of  an  Old  Play. 

PROF.  H.  A.  ADRIAN,  STATE  NORMAL,  RIVER  FALLS,  WIS. 

The  teacher  over  on  Butternut  evolved  a  new  game 
of  “Fox  and  Geese”  that  proved  more  popular  than  the 
old  one  had  been.  He  had  noticed  bow  eagerly  both 
boys  and  girls  looked  forward  to  the  coming  of  the  snow, 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


83 


which  would  enable  them  to  begin  their  regular  winter 
sport.  The  first  fall  came  just  as  his  “A  Class”  in 
geography  were  beginning  the  review  of  Wisconsin. 
The  winter  before  he  had  often  “chased  the  geese”  with 
them  in  the  adjoining  pasture,  and  this  morning  as  he 
began  to  draw  an  outline  map  of  the  state  on  the  board, 
he  looked  out  of  the  window  on  the  broad  white  fields 
and  thought  of  the  eager  crowd  that  would  soon  be  bois¬ 
terously  “laying  out”  the  ring.  He  had  promised  to 
“lead”  in  the  preliminary  survey,  and  he  himself  was 
not  without  a  good  deal  of  pleasant  anticipation  of  the 
fun. 

He  had  read  that  article  about  the  Kansas  teacher 
who  laid  out  her  state  and  bnilt  up  its  relief  in  a  fallow 
field  near  by,  and  as  he  gazed  out  of  the  window  he 
thought  of  a  plan  for  review  that  looked  more  like  play 
than  work.  He  did  not  feel  sure,  however,  that  the  chil¬ 
dren  would  accept  it  as  either. 

Most  of  the  pupils  were  there  by  a  quarter  to  nine 
so  that  he  had  time  enough  to  present  his  new  plan  in 
general  outline  and  talk  it  over  with  them  a  little, 
though  he  did  not  suggest  any  connection  between  it  and 
their  geography  work;  and  when  the  “A  Class”  was 
called,  without  any  explanation  he  assigned  a  lesson  on 
Minnesota, 

At  recess  the  entire  school  climbed  the  old  worm 
fence  into  the  pasture  beyond  and  at  a  brisk  trot  they 


84 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


set  out  after  the  teacher  in  a  northerly  direction,  making 
a  somewhat  wavy  line  about  20  rods  long,  then  south¬ 
west  for  4  rods,  then  to  the  north  and  northwest  22  rods, 
then  south  and  southeast  25  rods,  then  due  east  to  the 
starting  point,  making  a  fairly  accurate  outline  of  Wis¬ 
consin,  following  as  nearly  as  possible  the  “critical 
boundary.”  The  second  and  third  times  around,  the 
teacher  called  out  the  boundary  as  he  ran,  and  each  pupil 
called  it  out  to  the  one  behind  him.  During  noon-time 
they  put  in  the  Wisconsin  river,  making  a  straight  port^ 
age  from  its  source  to  the  northern  boundary  line,  then 
the  Fox  with  its  canal,  the  Rock  with  a  portage  line  to 
Lake  Winnebago,  and  the  Chippewa  with  a  portage  line 
to  Lake  Superior.  After  this  the  main  lines  t)f  the  C. 
&  N.  W.,  the  C.  M.  &  St.  P.,  the  Wis.  Central,  the  Soo 
and  the  Green  Bay  railroads  were  added.  Next  the 
leading  cities  were  located  for  goals,  and  everything  was 
ready  for  the  first  game.  All  were  called  together  at 
Madison,  the  home  goal,  and  the  rules  explained. 

Railway  lines,  rivers  and  the  boundaries  were  to  be 
open  runways.  A  runner  would  be  “safe”  on  reaching 
a  town,  provided  he  could  name  it  and  tell  where  located. 
A  goose,  when  caught,  would  have  to  be  released  if  the 
fox  failed  to  name  the  railway  or  the  river  on  which  the 
catch  was  made.  These  were  the  only  conditions  im¬ 
posed  at  first,  and  soon  the  fun  was  fast  and  furious. 
Of  course,  the  smaller  pupils  kept  near  Madison,  and  so 
did  the  geographical  weaklings,  but  in  a  short  time  all 


IN  GEOGRAPHY 


85 


were  venturing  further  and  further  from  home.  They 
were  learning  to  travel  by  traveling,  and  taking  the  con¬ 
sequence  of  mistakes. 

Before  the  end  of  the  week,  all  the  towns  of  import¬ 
ance  were  added,  and  new  conditions  were  beginning  to 
be  imposed.  One  day  it  would  be  to  give  the  approx¬ 
imate  size  of  the  goal  towns  as  a  condition  of  “safety.” 
Another  day  the  characteristic  industry;  then  some 
other  matter  of  interest  or  information  of  sufficient  im¬ 
portance  to  be  taught  in  geography  work. 

A  little  later  placards  were  made,  each  one  bearing 
the  name  of  some  Wisconsin  export  or  import.  Each 
goose  took  one,  and  with  this  fastened  to  his  back  he 
must  seek  the  place  where  it  was  produced,  or  the  point 
where  it  entered  the  state.  There  he  was  safe,  but  the 
play  was  to  get  these  products  to  the  proper  market  by 
the  usual  routes  without  being  caught.  When  the  first 
map  became  badly  disfigured,  the  state  was  outlined  in 
another  place.  Eacts  of  drainage,  soils  and  climate 
were  then  made  conditions,  at  various  times.  Nothing 
was  allowed  to  come  into  the  game  that  was  not  of  suffi¬ 
cient  importance  to  be  worth  knowing,  and  at  no  time 
was  it  correlated  with  work  going  on  in  the  schoolroom. 
The  teacher  discouraged  any  mention  of  it  during  work 
hours,  in  the  same  way  that  he  did  with  other  matters 
of  play.  He  believed  that  work  should  be  work  and  that 
play  should  be  play ;  and  that  at  no  time  should  they  be 
mixed.  If  the  hours  of  work  could  in  any  way  be  made 


86 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


more  pleasant,  consistent  with  thorough  mental  dis¬ 
cipline,  he  was  ready  to  take  advantage  of  it ;  and  if  the 
materials  of  play  could  sometimes  be  useful  facts,  with¬ 
out  detracting  from  the  “fun,”  it  seemed  to  him  a  good 
thing. 

I  am  not  sure  that  he  thought  much  about  the  latest 
rules  of  child  study,  or  whether  his  experiment  was  in 
strict  accord  with  advanced  pedagogical  thought,  but  his 
pupils  were  very  enthusiastic  about  their  play,  and  as 
deeply  interested  in  their  school  work,  and  they  seemed 
to  have  more  of  the  real,  business  man’s  geography  than 
any  corresponding  grades  I  have  ever  had  the  pleasure 
of  examining. 


Is  This  Geography? 

We  took  our  visiting  day  recently  and  spent  a  part 
of  it  with  a  sixth  grade  teacher  in  one  of  the  best  schools 
of  Illinois.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  the  geography  class 
had  been  making  a  study  of  London.  The  work  planned 
for  this  school  was  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  type  studies. 
The  pupils  were  making  a  tour  of  the  world,  visiting 
and  studying  the  type  forms.  The  first  part  of  the  reci¬ 
tation  that  we  heard  consisted  of  a  review  of  their  trip 
from  Chicago  to  London.  The  preparation  for  the  jour¬ 
ney  was  described  by  the  pupils  in  turn  with  great  der 
tail.  The  purchasing  of  a  steamer  trunk  and  its  pack¬ 
ing  had  been  considered  with  thoughtful  care.  The 


IN  GEOGKAPHY 


87 


route  to  New  York  was  carefully  outlined.  Many  places 
were  considered  worthy  of  study  and  the  local  interest 
of  each  was  uncovered.  The  Ypsilanti,  Michigan,  Nor¬ 
mal  School  received  more  than  passing  attention.  Be¬ 
tween  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  their  train  in  New  York 
and  the  sailing  of  their  steamer,  the  pupils  visited  many 
places  of  general  interest,  and  many  also  which  the  ordi¬ 
nary  sight-seer  could  not  find  time  for.  The  trip  was 
not  made  in  a  hurry.  It  was  the  aim  to  make  the  im¬ 
pressions  vivid  and  permanent  ;  hence  the  introduction 
of  much  detail. 

The  class,  with  the  aid  of  their  Baedekers,  had 
studied  London  in  detail,  and  were  now  taking  side  trips 
to  places  of  note  near  the  city.  The  lesson  of  the  pre¬ 
vious  day  had  been  a  trip  to  Windsor  Castle.  A  plan 
of  the  castle  was  now  on  the  board,  and  from  this  the 
entire  advance  recitation  of  the  day  was  made.  Much 
attention  was  given  to  the  changes  made  in  the  castle  by 
succeeding  rulers.  The  rebuilding  of  the  Bound  Tower 
by  Edward  III.  was  reported  at  length  by  one  pupil. 
The  fact  that  the  Tower  was  designated  for  a  meeting 
place  for  the  Knights  of  the  Garter  brought  out  a  de¬ 
scription  of  that  order.  The  class  was  asked  to  find  out 
all  they  could  about  the  Knights  of  the  Bound  Table 
before  the  next  recitation.  Many  interesting  facts  in 
connection  with  the  various  sovereigns  were  related,  and 
the  manner  and  cause  of  their  death  noted. 


88 


SUPPLEMENTARY  LESSONS 


This  recitation  was  interesting,  the  teacher  was 
bright  and  well-informed,  the  pupils  were  doing  much 
supplementary  reading,  hut — Is  this  Geography  ? 

[About  nine-tenths  of  it  is  not  only  not  geography,  but  it  is 
neither  rational  pedagogy  nor  valuable  information.  It  proceeds 
on  the  assumption  that  there  is  to  be  no  hereafter  to  the  child’s 
school  course,  but  that  he  must  now  “store  his  mind”  with  all  the 
possible  sorts  of  information  that  he  may  have  any  use  for  in 
after  life.  In  geography,  a  pupil  needs  to  be  taught,  first,  what 
a  map  is  and  how  to  use  it;  second,  a  few  general  facts  of  loca¬ 
tion,  commerce,  climate,  etc.  The  one  who  has  thus  been  taught 
can  to-day  take  a  map  of  South  Africa  and  read  intelligently 
about  the  Transvaal  and  the  war  there.  To  have  compelled  boys 
and  girls  a  year  ago  to  memorize  minute  details  about  that 
country  in  anticipation  of  their  possibly  having  use  for  them  later 
would  have  been  no  more  unprofitable  than  most  of  the  lessons 
noted  in  the  above  article. — Ed.  Teacher.] 


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